The excitement in the air of the Riverhead High School cafeteria yesterday was palpable — and it wasn't just because it was the last day of school before the holiday break. Nor was it dampened by security chief Donny Hendersen's interesting renditions of Christmas carols over the cafeteria loud speakers.
The challenge: Use a minimum of 20 steps to pop a balloon.
That was the objective of 20 teams competing in Riverhead High School's Rube Goldberg competition Dec 23 at the high school. And each time the electric atmosphere was punctuated by the loud pop of a balloon, cheers rang out and hands went up in the air in triumph.
The teams were made up of students in Riverhead's regents physics classes and students in Riverhead's SMART physics program, said physics teacher Brian Cunningham. The SMART physics program accelerates students into physics in 9th grade, putting them on track to take a college-level AP physics course in high school, he said.
The contest winners compete in the regional competition at the Cradle of Aviation Musuem, where last year Riverhead took second and third place prizes, siad physics teacher Gregory Wallace.
This year's contest winners in the regents class division were: "A Fork in the Garbage Disposal," first place (Sameer Anand, Gabi Esclair, Ryan Koeberl, Melissa Kujawski and Amanda Commins); "Power Rangers," second place (Becca Reilly, Sean Smith, Christy Brewer and Gabby Serpico).
In the SMART Physics division, the winners were: "The Dream Team," first place (Noah Markewitz, Anthony Antunes, Ryan DiResta, Aakash Ghandi and Nick Cunningham); "Four Wise Men and John," second place (Kenny Somco, Jacob Funfgeld, Nick Herzog, James Rios and John Wendt.)
The contest was judged by a trio of three: Dr. Sean Bentley of the Adelphi University SMART Physics Program, and Leila Makdisi and Judy Isbitiren of the Long Island Science Center.
The regional competition takes place on Saturday, Feb. 11.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Peter Blasl and Denise Civiletti
