STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiatives are all the rage in American education nowadays given the fact that there are 29 and 22 industrialized nations where high school students performed better than U.S. students in math and science respectively in 2012, according to the public-private partnership National Math + Science Initiative. Luckily, communities like Garden City have embraced the challenge particularly in the field of robotics competitions. At the 10th annual Long Island Qualifying Tournament that was held at Central Islip High School on Saturday. Feb. 1, several Garden City First Lego League (FLL) teams, including the Crazy Creators and Thunder Chickens, made quite an impression. With more than 100 teams competing for 42 spots at next month’s Long Island Championship, five of those spots were captured by Garden City teams. It’s clearly apparent that at least in this small corner of the world, the United States will be holding its own on the global STEM stage in the future.
— Dave Gil de Rubio
