BY MARIA BROWNSELL
North Rockland High School hosted this years Rockland County Science Invention Technology Exposition on Sunday, April 7. This was the 27th annual SIT Expo, with the first being held at Spring Valley High School in 1986.
The exposition is open to students in grades five through twelve throughout Rockland County with about 350 participants every year. The last eighteen years have been held at North Rockland High School. It is run by volunteers that include teachers, parents, local businesses, and North Rockland students.
At the event this past Sunday, eager students showed off their projects to every interested party. They had everything set up from early in the morning so that the judges could view everything before the public came. “I’ve always been interested in rocks since I was about three or 4-years-old,” said fifth-grader Brandon Hirsh from Connor School. Brandon did his project on rocks and minerals and was very excited to share all his data.
Brian Cerra, also a fifth-grader at Connor School, created a computer program to solve the unsolvable rubix cube dilemma. He did all the programming himself included a whole story in the game to make it more interesting. “It is great for the kids to work like this and see each others projects. It’s a great experience to present their work to the judges,” said Brian’s mom, Susan Cerra.
Susan was amongst the many proud parents at Sunday exposition.
“This is the first time participating in this event,” said Supriya Reddy from New City about her daughter. “We have never been to a science fair. Clarkstown doesn’t have much for their science department. We really wanted her to be exposed to different areas of science. It’s a great opportunity,”
The older students in the room were just as ready to explain their projects.
“We were interested in magnetism. We wanted to find an eco friendly way for transportation. Cars are the number one cause of pollution in the world,” said Dominque Varier with her science partner Timothy Mathew. Both are sixth-graders at Nyack Middle School.
Henry Blanker and Jenna Cooperman, sixth graders at South Orangetown Middle School did their project on the effectiveness of hand sanitizers.“My sister had the flu and my mom kept saying wash your hands! So I thought of this idea,” said Jenna.
To their surprise, the non-alcohol based hand sanitizer ended being the best one.
Skylar Karzhevsky, a ninth-grader at Tappan Zee High School, did her research on allergic conditions after developing an allergy to apples. “There is a huge issue with allergies. Look at all the nut-free tables. We have to find out what is going on. It’s an epidemic!” said Skylar who is looking forward to doing research with professional scientists in the next year on this.
At the end of the exposition, awards were given to the top projects in different categories and grade levels. Every student put much hard work into their project and earned the admiration of their peers.
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