Baldwin All-Girls STEM Team Wins High School Science Award

BALDWIN, NY —An all-female team from Baldwin High School won the top award at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research 9th Annual Medical Marvels Competition, held virtually. Ninth and tenth grade students created a plan to address a community health problem, and the topic of this year's competition was gun violence.

150 STEM students across Nassau and Suffolk counties participated. The students researched the topic, then presented their public health policies that had to include a technological element.

The Baldwin team—Thalia Kontoleon, Reyna Palmer, Jessica Darcy and Rochelle Saunders— developed a strategy to monitor the mental health and background of gun purchasers, a plan that their research suggested could reduce gun deaths in New York State by 70% in 18 years.

Speakers at the virtual event included the director of Northwell’s Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Trauma.

“These students will be future scientific leaders and innovators,” Kevin J. Tracey, MD, the president and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes said in a news release.

A team from New Hyde Park high school won second place, and Bellmore students took third.