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High school senior Joe Raso signed a national letter of intent on Feb. 23 to play soccer this fall for SUNY Oneonta. He received a Presidential Scholarship to attend the university, where he plans to major in pre-professional health or accounting.

A forward, Raso is East Islip’s team captain and has earned All-County All-Conference, All-League, Scholar-Athlete and MVP recognition. He has also played for the past eight years for the Commack United soccer club team, where he also serves as captain. In academics, Raso has earned high honor roll for four consecutive years.

The high school’s boys bowling team recently wrapped up its fifth consecutive league title. The Redmen earned the most points in the county, and Joe Zagari finished with an average of 232, the highest in Suffolk. The team will compete in the county championships on Feb. 28, seeking a fifth straight title.

In a schoolwide January STEAM project, students at Connetquot designed “snow forts” using mini marshmallows to determine whether taller or wider forts were more stable. The students were challenged to test out their creations, throwing a large marshmallow at each structure to determine if it would stay upright and if the figure inside it would be protected. They then worked on revising their designs to improve the structures.

The high school’s robotics classes recently completed a multi-day tournament with their newly constructed VEX Swept Away game robots, guided by technology teacher James Connell. The student groups had six weeks to design, build and test their robots prior to the competition, which is designed to help introductory robotics students learn about competition robotics. 

This year presented some interesting challenges, as many of the students were part of the district’s hybrid model of instruction. This meant that they were only constructing their robots for half the week while studying and learning robotics theory – such as gear ratios, electronics and chassis design – for the second half. Since the school has been utilizing Google Classroom for the entire year, the matches were recorded and posted on class Google streams with daily results so that students could rewatch, study and analyze their teams’ victories and losses. This proved to be an asset for the students in designing and creating the best competition robots possible.

Middle school technology education students were also invited to watch and study some of the matches live via Google Classroom, to help make them more familiar with the high school’s robotics program.

The high school’s robotics students will be studying programming next, so that they can design and create new robots that can drive autonomously for a forthcoming new modified game.

“This year’s robotics classes really pushed the envelope and made excellent competition robots,” Connell said. “We’ve been playing the VEX Swept Away game with my classes for the past few years, and I’ve never seen top performances like this before. I’m looking forward to seeing what they will come up with next.”

“It was a great experience for the middle school students to get some insight in to what they could be doing within technology education classes when they get to the high school,” said technology teacher William Lackner.

“My students were quite impressed with the fact that we were seeing an event happening live at the high school,” said technology teacher Pamela Avella. “It was a great way to connect the middle school and high school technology courses.”

“As a person who has a very serious interest in a career in robotic engineering, I feel like this class has provided me with a good start on that path,” said high schooler Kaityln McCall. “Competing against my peers and having my robot perform at such a high level was an amazing experience.”

The high school’s cheerleading team, guided by coach Ariel Abesamis, was given honorable mention recognition by Newsday on Feb. 15. Seniors Kayla Brabender and Jules Keaney were highlighted.

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Guided by Joy Taylor, the middle school’s Art Service Club recently created “Splashtastic Winter Wonderland” character designs. The students met virtually and transformed their favorites Splashes of Hope characters to be ready for winter.

Music is filling the hallways at East Islip High School a little more loudly these days since cohorts 1 and 2 combined for in-person classes last week. The school’s honors symphony orchestra kicked of the larger ensemble rehearsal with pieces by Mozart and Atwell.

Third graders in Mary Beth Eichin's class at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ recently learned about the U.S. government and the system of checks and balances, as well as exploring persuasive writing. After viewing speeches from famous people, they created their own messages, dressed to impress and presented their speeches to their fellow students. The class voted for Joatham Belmont, who will now select his cabinet members and a judge who will help with decision-making throughout the rest of the year.

Schools will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 1, due to the winter storm.