Palmetto, Ransom Everglades take top honors in science tournament

Miami Palmetto High School and Ransom Everglades High School earned top honors during Barry University’s 17th annual Chemistry and Physics Tournament.

The tournament includes written, oral and laboratory competitions in chemistry and physics, and was created to promote the importance of learning about the sciences and celebrating excellence in local high schools.

“There is no doubt that each year there is more demand for STEM careers,” said Zuzana Zajickova, professor and chair of Barry University’s chemistry department. “We want to foment young talent to help students follow a path to a successful college career in the sciences.”

More than 150 students from 14 local high schools competed. Miami Palmetto High placed first overall in the chemistry competition, and Ransom Everglades High placed first overall in physics. Other schools that earned top distinctions in chemistry included Pine Crest School with second place and John A. Ferguson High School with third. Second and third place winners for physics included Cypress Bay High School and MAST Academy at Florida International University.

Monsignor Pace High School

The Future Business Leaders of America at Monsignor Pace High School earned awards after competing in the 2018 Florida State Leadership Conference in Orlando.

The FBLA is an organization that aims to help high school students improve their leadership skills and achieve their academic goals.

The freshman team, Nicolas Macias, Eric Gonzalez and Jonathan Reyes, earned fourth place in mobile applications; and Vanessa Perez-Robles earned fifth place in public speaking.

In addition to her fifth-place win, Vanessa was accepted into Yale University’s Young Global Scholars Program, which takes place this summer. The residential program, running from June 17–30, will include seminars, lectures and classes taught by professors, graduate and undergraduate students at Yale.

During the program, Vanessa will be required to conduct a research project based on a topic of interest.

North Beach Elementary School

Several students from North Beach Elementary School qualified to compete in Odyssey of the Mind’s World Finals Competition on May 22-27 at Iowa State University.

Odyssey of the Mind is a nonprofit organization that aims to develop and encourage problem-solving skills in grade school students. The regional competition required student-teams to choose a problem and solve it. All teams are then judged on the effectiveness of their solution, style effect, and solutions to spontaneous problems given to the team on the day of the competition.

Alexia Karpawich, Madeline Benitez, Drea Buchman, Emilia Moritz, Max Feldman and Ellie Feldman placed first in both the state and regional competitions earlier this year. The North Beach Elementary team is the only Tropical Region team competing in the World Finals.

Cutler Bay High School

Salute to Education awarded laptops and $1,500 scholarships to Alanna Alfonso and Adriana Delgado, both graduating seniors at Cutler Bay High School.

Salute to Education is a nonprofit that’s funded by Miami-Dade and Broward County Ford and Lincoln Dealerships, and recognizes students for their community involvement, academic achievements, leadership, character, goals, and interests, obstacles they’ve overcome, and achieved objectives.

Alanna was selected for her athletic achievements; Adriana was selected for her leadership and service.

Congressman visits Miami-Dade Schools

Congressman Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat, recently visited several inner city schools in Miami-Dade to raise awareness on the importance of using the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Program as a tool to combat stress, aggression, bullying and school violence.

Ryan visited the Academy for International Education in Miami Springs, Mater Academy of International Studies in Miami, and Arcola Lakes Elementary School in Liberty City. His visit was organized by Valerie York-Zimmerman, founder of Miami Mindfulness, which provides professional training of the program to teachers and counselors, who then teach students in the classroom. The training aims to increase attention and academic achievement, reduce stress and increase performance, improve impulse control and increase teaching time in classrooms, develop emotional regulation and teach students to respond instead of reacting, and build empathy and compassion.

“For a very small investment, we can prevent tragic future costs and heartaches in our communities. How much will we save in preventing substance abuse? How much will we save in preventing suicides and mass shootings because children feel isolated and alone? My goal is to get us to focus more on mental health and well-being in the most important asset we have in America — well-functioning human beings,” Ryan said.

This story was originally published May 1, 2018 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Palmetto, Ransom Everglades take top honors in science tournament."