Seventh-graders in Donald Ingegno’s class at Finley Middle School have been busy conducting labs as part of their classroom learning.  

Mr. Ingegno incorporated Play-Doh into class instruction to reinforce students’ coordination, focus and motor skills. The first of the two labs was during Unit Four: Atoms and Periodic Table. The students built their own atoms and labeled its parts: nucleus, protons, neutrons and electrons. The class also used M&M’s to show the elections in their electron configuration. 

The second lab kicked off Unit Six, where the students were introduced to potential and kinetic energy. The class used an animated roller coaster as their model to help them identify which parts of the roller coaster have potential and kinetic energies. They then drafted a drawing of their own roller coaster, labeling the parts that identified the potential and kinetic energies. Finally students had fun building their own roller coasters out of Play-Doh.

Each lab concludes with a write-up that connects to the scientific method and questions that prompt student engagement suggestions on how they would change the lab.        

Finley Middle School sixth-grader Mert Suyabatmoz has qualified for participation in the Long Island Regional Spelling Bee at the Pless Center for Performing Arts Auditorium at St. Joseph’s College on March 20.

The champion of the Long Island Regional Spelling Bee will advance to the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland, from May 26-31. Good luck! 

Glen Cove High School and Finley Middle School students were visited by NY1 news reporter and author Cheryl Wills and Sheryl Goodine, a former district administrator and president of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Commission, in honor of Black History Month.

Mrs. Wills took students on a compelling journey through the lens of her childhood. During the 1970s, as she sat in social studies class learning about confederates in the Civil War, she never learned that she was a direct descendant of an enslaved man named Sandy Wills, who also served in the Civil War with President Lincoln’s United States Colored Troops. She learned of the connection when she began researching her family’s history after her father’s death. During her presentation, Mrs. Wills encouraged students to learn their families’ history and to embrace who they are.  

Ms. Goodine, who has deep roots in Glen Cove, also shared her family history with the students. Her father, James Davis, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and he, along with the Glen Cove NAACP, was instrumental in desegregating Glen Cove City Schools and the city’s fire department. 

The presentations concluded with students asking questions of Mrs. Wills and Ms. Goodine. District Coordinator of Social Studies Sheena Jacob said the presentation reinforced the importance of remembering Black History Month and civic action.  

Click here to watch the GCTV Friday Morning News covering Cheryl Wills' visit