Middle school Science Olympiad students in the district’s academically gifted EXCEL program competed against 33 other teams in the Eastern Long Island Region, earning nine medals and third place overall at the event, held Feb. 28 at Candlewood Middle School in Dix Hills. The results qualified the team to compete in the state competition in April in Syracuse.

The Islip students had worked hard since the beginning of the school year to prepare for this rigorous competition, which included both studying the complexities of meteorology, topography, entomology, physiology and epidemiology, among other topics, and building events in which the students were required to construct devices including a wheeled vehicle and a robot. The EXCEL students competed in 17 different Science Olympiad events, winning nine and as well as the team Quiz Bowl challenge.

The EXCEL Science Olympiad team consisted of Brian Abair, Olivia Berger, Molly Breakstone, Daniel Canalas, Tyler Cassara, Maddie Germano, Julia Hormann, Ashley Howell, Brandon Kelly, Kerry Monaghan, Bella Pollina, Darienne Rogers, Sofia Rubinson, Matthew Southard, Greg Warnokowski and alternate Joey Kornahrens.

Medals were earned in the categories of Robo-Cross (first place for Berger and Rubinson), Road Scholar (second place for Canales and Warnokowski), Crime Busters (third place for Hormann and Southard), Simple Machines (third place for Abair and Warnokowski), Fossils (third place for Breakstone and Rogers), Experimental Design (third place for Breakstone, Monaghan and Southard), Disease Detectives (third place for Monaghan and Southard), Entomology (fourth place for Berger and Pollina) and Crave the Wave (sixth place for Breakstone and Rubinson).

A video celebrating the team’s success, created by Islip Middle School math teacher Joseph Ackermann, can be viewed here.