Celebrating the Arts - Dwight-Englewood School

STUDENTSTANDOUTS&FACULTYENDEAVORS
Dwight-Englewood School
32
The Art of Science
Using the art of videography and
some artistic engineering,
Dwight-Englewood students in
the Middle and Upper School Divisions
were recognized recently for significant
achievements in two competitive
scientific awards programs.
Student Videos Earn
Recognition, School Wins
$5,000 Grant
In a national video contest sponsored
by the Chemical Heritage Foundation in
conjunction with the Dow Chemical
Company, three 9th grade teams from
Dwight-Englewood received “Top 20”
honors. Called “It’s Elemental,” the contest
challenged students to make a video
that creatively presented the historical,
scientific, and societal significance of
one of the elements in the periodic table.
More than 700 videos were submitted.
The D-E team of Maeve O’Brien ’14 and
Alexa Kaufman ’14 created a video about
zinc with an original rap song soundtrack;
the video by Amy Wang ’14, Ellie Polite
’14, and Jamie Spingeld ’14 featured
three phosphorus molecules discussing
their similarities, differences, and uses;
and Angely Prieto ’14 and Gary Finn ’14
introduced the world to the superhero
known as Super Sodium. All of the
students are freshman in the advisory
groups of Dr. Nancy Males and
Dr. Marco Pagnetti.
By placing in the top 20, all three videos
went on to compete in a viewer’s choice
competition. What’s more, they earned
D-E's nationally recognized “It’s Elemental”
online video contest winners (all from the
Class of 2014) with their chemistry teachers
from the D-E Science Department, Dr. Marco
Pagnotta (back row) and Dr. Nancy Males
(foreground, far right).
the Dwight-Englewood Science
Department the opportunity to
compete in an essay contest for a
$5,000 grant. In March, D-E was
informed that it was one of only 11
schools in the nation to receive the
grant, which will be used to purchase
equipment for science lab work. Nancy
Males explains: “We wrote the grant
essay asking for funds to purchase
spectrophotometry equipment and
molecular model kits to enhance the
molecular biology units that we teach
in 9th and 10th grade. It's sometimes
difficult for students this age to make
some of the abstract connections that
we want them to make. Purchase of
this equipment will allow us to develop
more hands-on opportunities to help
the students better visualize the
concepts.”
Bulldog ’Bots Place Second in
State Robotics Competition
Critical Mass, the D-E robotics team,
placed second at the New York State
FIRST Tech Challenge Championship
at the Javits Center in New York. The
team went undefeated in every round
until the final match, losing by only a
few points. Opposing teams included
Horace Mann, Stuyvesant High School,
and Bronx High School of Science.
The team distinguished itself early on
in the field of 64, which was split into
two divisions, according to team
advisor Marco Pagnotta. “Our intrepid
squad not only seeded first after four
undefeated matches to become an
alliance captain, but then went on to
win our division’s single elimination
play-offs,” he says. “But, our threeteam
alliance lost in a best two-outof
three nail-biter to the overall
champions from the other division.”
A few more points in the final match
would have earned the team an
invitation to the FTC World
Championship in St. Louis.
The Critical Mass team included
Co-Captains Nick Canelos and
Denver Cohen (chief builder);
seniors Taylor Derchin and Liz Kim;
sophomores Danielle Katan, Leah
Steinmetz, and Rhea Kothari; and
freshmen Clement Hathaway, Clifford
Yudkoff, Oscar Uribe, Joseph
Chartouni, and Allan Lee.
Quick Takes
Upper School students Rachel Cole
’12 and Jessica Lee ’12, both varsity
soccer players, were named earlier this
year to the Top 100 of the national
TopDrawerSoccer.com rankings. Rachel
is ranked #66 nationally in her age group
and is ranked #4 in New Jersey. Jessica
is ranked #99 nationally and is ranked
#5 in New Jersey. For more information
visit www.topdrawersoccer.com/
players-to-watch.
Soccer phenom Rachel Cole ’12 was ranked
#4 in New Jersey and #66 in the U.S. earlier
this year.
Senior Marti Satnik ’11 had an article
published in the Jewish Advocate
earlier this year. The article, “Planting the
Seeds of Peace: Reflections on a
Summer Challenging Preconceptions,”
focused on Seeds of Peace, a camp in
Otisfield, ME, “where teenagers from
across the Middle East and North
America work on conflict resolution and
finding commonalities.” Marti spent a
summer at the camp after being
accepted as an American Delegate or
“seed” with the mission “to cultivate a
small path toward peace.” Her article
vividly describes the range of emotions
that she felt during the experience,
particularly in the weeks following her
return from the camp, when she visited
Israel and Jordan with her family. The
article can be read in its entirety at:
www.www.jstandard.com.