Tarmac Online

By: Michael Cole ’27

For most of the school year, the work of Chaminade’s Science Research program took place quietly—in labs, on computers, and through long after-school sessions of revision and collaboration. This spring, entering science fair season, that work went public.

On April 21st, ten students traveled to the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City to compete in the Long Island Science Congress (LISC), one of the largest student science competitions on Long Island. The scale of the event spread across every floor of the museum, with every exhibit hall filled with students stationed in front of their poster boards, and hundreds of participants from schools across the region packing the venue wall to wall. Each Chaminade student presented independent work spanning a wide range of scientific categories.

On Thursday of the following week, April 30th, eleven students competed at the South Asian American Women’s Alliance (SAAWA) High School Science Fair at the Merrick Golf Course in Merrick. Restricted to South Shore schools, SAAWA drew a more compact field than LISC; the competition, however, was no less rigorous. Students were spread across two floors of the building, packed side by side, presenting their research to, at times, panels of judges and other students throughout the day.

Among those competing at both tournaments were juniors Erik Ravn and myself, Michael Cole. I studied how disrupting a cancer cell’s metabolic pathway—specifically through a compound that inhibits glutamine processing—reshapes both cell survival and immune evasion across two distinct cancer cell lines. The work explored whether targeting cancer metabolism could simultaneously limit a cell’s ability to evade immune detection, offering a potential basis for combination therapeutic approaches.

Erik, meanwhile, studied the relationship between campaign finance data and electoral outcomes. “The goal of my project was to analyze campaign finance data across eight major U.S. cities and then create an AI model that would use that data to predict the outcomes of future elections, as well as analyze the impact of finance policies on voter turnout. The result was the most accurate election prediction model to date, outperforming prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket, as well as traditional methods,” said Ravn.

“The experience of attending tournaments this year was incredible, as I was able to meet teachers from across Long Island who had a genuine interest in my project and were able to deliver meaningful feedback. As a result, these tournaments are what allow students at Chaminade to improve their projects and develop a passion for research,” Erik added.

Preparing a program of this scale for two competitions in one month requires considerable effort behind the scenes. Dr. Karen Kuntz, Co-Director of the Dolan Family Science, Technology, and Research Center, guided each student’s project individually throughout the year. Dr. Kuntz reviewed drafts, refined experimental design, and oversaw the printing and physical assembly of every poster board. Furthermore, she managed this for every student across four grades simultaneously, knowing each project inside and out while offering substantive feedback every day.

Mr. Michael Calandra, a 2020 Chaminade alumnus, was equally present throughout, collaborating with students during class, contributing fresh perspectives to their work, and staying after school to help build and finalize boards alongside Dr. Kuntz. Together, their sustained commitment to the research team made both tournaments possible.

As Dr. Kuntz reflected, “We are incredibly proud of how far all of our student researchers have progressed in the past few years, both in their scientific thinking and their confidence as presenters. We’re also grateful for opportunities like the Long Island Science Congress and the SAAWA South Shore Science Fair, which bring together talented students from across Long Island to share their work and inspire one another.”

Any students interested in learning more about the Science Research program are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Karen Kuntz at kkuntz@chaminade-hs.org.