POBJFK Student Wins Long Island Brain Bee

A Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School student won the Long Island Brain Bee, a regional high school science competition. This is the second year in a row that a POB student has won.

This year’s winner was junior Jessica Goldstein. She competed against 35 students, ages 14 to 18, from high schools in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

“I’ve always liked science,” Goldstein said. “The Brain Bee inspired me to focus on the area of neuroscience and learn more about it.”

She earned a trip to compete at the 11th USA Regional Brain Bee Championship in Baltimore in March.

“It has been an incredible experience, I’m looking forward to the national contest,” she said.

Returning competitors Amy De Lury, of Sachem North High School, and Ankita Katukota, of Comsewogue High School, earned second and third place, respectively.

The Long Island Brain Bee consists of three rounds of competition: a multiple-choice exam on brain facts, a laboratory demonstration and a test to identify anatomical functions and structures in real human brain specimens.

There’s also a charades-style round where contestants identify brain disorders, treatments and diagnostic tools based on skits performed by medical students.

To prepare for the Brain Bee, competitors study “Brain Facts,” a primer on the brain and nervous system published by the Society for Neuroscience.

For more information about the Long Island Brain Bee and the Zucker School of Medicine, visit online at medicine.hofstra.edu.

Images via Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell

• Photo 1: LI Brain Bee Top 3 (left to right): SECOND PLACE—Amy De Lury, Sachem North High School; FIRST PLACE—Jessica Goldstein, Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School; THIRD PLACE—Ankita Katukota, Comsewogue High School. All high school juniors.
  
• Photo 2: LI Brain Bee 2018 high school participants proudly display their certificates of achievement.