Sixth-grade students in Michelle Labuski’s class at Great Hollow Middle School recently completed a lesson on the Persian War. They learned about the famous Battle of Marathon, which is how the 26-mile race was created and named. Students watched videos on the Persian War in race corrals to wait their turn to start the marathon. At each mile, students lifted the race bib to take notes on a different event of the Persian War on their marathon course map. At the water stops, students answered questions based on their notes. At the end of the marathon, students received a medal for their hard work.

Smithtown showed off the talent of its student body and recognized the accomplishments of students and staff during its Feb. 26 board of education meeting.

The meeting was held at Smithtown Elementary School, as the board of education is moving its meetings to different locations this school year in an effort to connect with the community. Smithtown Elementary fifth-graders showed off their performing skills with a sneak peek of a few songs from their upcoming presentation of “The Lion King” to start the meeting.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. James Grossane honored and recognized several teachers and a student. High School West senior Matthew Bizzaro was recognized for receiving first place in the Long Island round of the National Automotive Technology Competition. Four Smithtown teachers – David Junz, Kelly Bigliani, Glenn Rogers and Brian Cusati – were honored for being chosen as Project Lead the Way Master Teachers. Lastly, High School East math teacher Marianne Schoepflin was honored for achieving National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification. 

As part of their family and consumer science classes at Great Hollow Middle School, students are learning the basics of cooking. In January, the classes worked on making dinners, measuring ingredients and following directions for a chicken stir fry recipe. Students in Ms. Hall’s class were also busy practicing their cutting in and creaming techniques by making a crumb cake. The students taste tested all of their delicious creations at the end of the lesson.

Seventh-graders in Mrs. Stebbins’s art class at Great Hollow Middle School are completing their mask relief multicultural projects. Using plaster and paint, the students researched different cultures to create masks featuring protruding objects. The masks are on display outside the school’s library.

Eighth-graders from Great Hollow Middle School are designing and engineering their own robotic machines as part of a 10-weeklong project in Connor Kelly’s Automation and Robotics Project Lead the Way class. Using Vex robotics parts and Robotec, the students were tasked with coding, building and testing their designs from scratch. The machines had to perform one of eight different tasks and include multiple sensors. 

Eighth-graders in Kristen Dean’s art class at Great Hollow Middle School are creating three-dimensional sculptures. The abstract pieces feature designs that are inspired by aboriginal artwork.