Aeronautical Science
The Aeronautical Science Course seeks to teach students about the history, science, mathematics of controlled flight. The newly-adopted AOPA Foundation aeronautical science curriculum allows students to simulate the operation of various single-engine and multi-engine aircraft. This course also includes topics such as: pilot and aircraft qualifications, principles of flight, aerodynamics, spin awareness, flight maneuvers, pre- and post-flight procedures, airport operations, regulations, safety, weather, aircraft systems, weight and balance, human factors, cockpit management, emergency procedures, night operations, aeronautical decision-making, cross-country flight planning, airspace, and other topics that help prepare students for the Federal Aviation Administration's Private Pilot written exam. The Aviation club and Aeronautical science senior elective represent a unique opportunity for Fordham Prep students to learn the essentials of flight operations on the ground and in the air. In addition, the course will reinforce topics found within the disciplines of science, mathematics & informational writing. The course incorporates the use of custom Edustations (educational flight simulators). Many students have gone on to earn their Private Pilot Airman certification.
Astronomy
Hi, my name is Declan O’Hara and I have an interest in astronomy and astrophysics. I was lucky enough to use a telescope that was provided for me by Fordham Prep to observe the stars and planets in detail and take pictures of them. Our understanding of stars in our universe has been increasing because of increasingly powerful telescopes. Using an AI image processing software, I was able to get pictures of stars and planets in great detail. I was able to see the individual moons of Jupiter.
Declan O’Hara is a Fordham Prep sophomore and member of the Astronomy Club.
Computer Graphics & Web Design
This full-year course focuses on teaching students design principles through the advanced use of the Adobe software suite. Students participate in project-based learning that results in the development of artistic vocabulary, an increase in creative capacity, gaining an understanding of effective design techniques and mastery of software.
Feel free to engage with Sebastian Vera De Mena '23, Christopher Panchame '23 and Xavier Rodriquez '23 as the display their projects and work on a new assignment.
Computer Science Honors
Computer Science Honors is an elective course for juniors and seniors who desire to deepen their knowledge of programming, boolean logic, and applet development. An emphasis is placed on object-oriented programming, control structures, and user interaction. Throughout the year, students have developed single and two-player games - on display at this Expo are text-based versions of Nim and Wordle. Students also immersed themselves in the field of data science, using Jupyter notebooks to analyze and visualize data related to weather and finance.
Students: Brandon Schnetzer ‘24 and James Spameni ‘24
Cybersecurity Club
Fordham Prep’s Cybersecurity Club was founded in 2019. During the initial few years of the club there was a core group of students that learned about the beginnings of cybersecurity and the various websites and articles that were written about it. The Club participated in one competition in its first year.
Paul Creegan ‘24, the current head of the Cybersecurity Club, became involved in the club in his freshman year (2021) and was the Co-President last year and the President this year which he will continue during his Senior year.
Under Paul’s leadership the club, which meets every Monday afternoon in Fordham Prep’s MakerSpace, has grown to 20+ students. As detailed below, the club has recently competed in an individual and group competition, brought in outside speakers, done in-house competitions and even has its own club sweatshirt (which was designed by club members).
During the 2022-2023 school year, Peter Rosario, Chief Information Security Officer, at USI Insurance Services spoke to the club about his career and the impact of COVID 19 on the industry.
Working with the Fordham Prep Alumni Relations Department, Paul has reached out to a number of FP alums who are involved in this area. He has already lined up an alum who is a former military intelligence officer and now a cybersecurity consultant to speak with the club during the fall of 2023 and plans on scheduling another speaker for the spring of 2024.
Until this year the club had not competed since 2019. This year the cybersecurity team participated in both an individual and a group competition through the National Cyber League (NCL). In 2023 the club will again participate in these competitions and may travel to a convention.
Many of the topics that Paul discusses during club meetings, such as Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining, were learned while attending programs at the National Student Leadership Counsel (NSLC), Fordham University and Columbia University. In addition, Paul has reached out to many people working in a variety of cybersecurity fields and has been given, and then brought, these gadgets and tools to the meetings. These gadgets include: Flipper Zero, de author, LAN turtle, and a de auth detector.
For additional information, please reach out to Paul at creeganp24@fordhamprep.org
List of the 2022-2023 Competition Schedule:
National Cyber League Games
Cyber Gymnasium (Aug 22 - Dec 16)
Practice Game (Oct 10 - 17)
Individual Game (Oct 21 - 23)
Team Game (Nov 4 - 6)
Cybersecurity Curriculum - Project Lead the Way
In addition to the Cyber Security club, Fordham Prep has launched its Computer Science Dept. One of the classes being offered is Cyber security taught by Mr. Caraballo of The IT dept. Thanks to a Grant, Fordham prep invested in the Project lead the way PLTW, Learning Platform to provide Labs, projects and real life Problems that students would solve, acquire hands on skills using PLTW Security virtual labs. Having a Club as well as an Academic class gives students the opportunity to increase their understanding of the dangers of the internet on how to defend themselves. Student’s role play as penetration testers and learn how to become ethical hackers. Research demonstrates that PLTW students outperform their peers in school, are better prepared for post-secondary studies, and are more likely to consider careers in STEM compared to their non-PLTW peers. Students find PLTW programs relevant, inspiring, engaging, and foundational to their future success.
E-Sports
E-Sports is an online sport where teams compete in different video games. Much like traditional sports, E-sports is competitive, builds team unity, mental ability and physical ability. Fordham Prep has just begun its E-sports program, and already we have competed in numerous matches against schools such as Saint Peters and Salesian high school. We have already won a match with our amazing Super Smash Bros team. We currently also have teams for Super Smash Bros, Valorant and Overwatch 2. Upcoming in the fall more games such as Chess, Rocket league and the games that started it all Fortnite and League of Legends. Every day of the week, our players meet to practice and improve for our upcoming matches. Fordham Prep fully supports this new program and it will grow in the coming years to include more games as well as advanced equipment. Please look forward to seeing our continued success!
Ferris Wheel
A Ferris Wheel made by some of our iSTEAM engineering science students. It was used as a centerpiece for our Ignite fundraising event this year. The winner of the auction, Tom Huvane '84, P'15, has donated it back to Fordham Prep. The students propose giving it to an organization that's part of the Bronx community. It has been offered to the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. The Ferris Wheel is made with a K'NEX building set of over 8550 pieces. It stands 6 feet tall, 6 feet wide, and about 2 feet deep. There is a motor that will spin the Ferris Wheel around and battery-operated LED lights were added to it by the students to increase its visual appeal in lower-light settings. It took the three students about 20 hours to build.
Adrian Ayers plans to go to Loyola Maryland to study business administration.
Stephen DiTomasso plans to go to Manhattan College to study mechanical engineering.
Seth Bello plans to go to SUNY New Paltz to study education.
FP3D
Fordham Prep’s 3D printing club had an amazing day year! The group began with a few Jelly boxes: printers where students had to build from scratch received a maker bot printer and just this year two Ender 3 Printers. President Anand Mehr, together with Brandon Thorne, Kevin Boateng and several others have Printed 100’s projects throughout the year. The 2023 Year kicked off with personalized Tie clips for Faculty, Desk nameplates, and Chess pieces. The FP3D club throughout the year were open to sharing their knowledge and showing students and prospective students at open houses, on how to design projects for printing. Another of FP3D’s strengths is Collaborating! Students have collaborated with Robotics in creating robot wheels and prosthetic pieces, to printing drone parts for Aeronautics. The FP3D club have created Trophies, Ram Heads and even Student head Profiles using a 3D Scanner. The FP3D club have not only designed and printed many items but they also learned the ins and outs of the 3D printers in Troubleshooting and fixing them throughout the year. The FP3D club connected with the Universities new Learning, and Innovation Technology Environment Center, in hope for future collaboration for the years to come. Anand Mehr has been instrumental in the group’s success and has even helped to raise $500 dollars for the group’s future. Anand Mehr now passes on the Baton to Brandon Thorne who will lead the group for the next school year.
Robotics
The Fordham Prep Robotics Club combines teamwork, problem-solving, and collaboration to produce exceptional robots for use in competitions or to test and have fun within the robotics arena. Students from freshmen to seniors work together to build robots with Vex parts. Vex is a website where the Robotics Club gets its programs for robotic controls and robot parts for augmentation. In addition to the building process, programming is an opportunity to not only create new functions for our robots but to also interact with fellow Robotics Club members. Lastly, all members of the Robotics Club are able to provide suggestions about programming, building, augmentation, or future club plans, to improve the general feeling of the club and to give future students as well as veteran members a better experience in the club. Overall, the Robotics Club is a great way to learn how to code, utilize problem-solving skills, and make friends that will guide you during your experience at Fordham Prep.
-Thomas Sanchez ‘25
The Robotics Club is all about designing and building robots. We focus on various aspects of robotics, such as sensor integration, programming, and mechanical design. Every year we participate in a competition run by the VEX company. This competition gives us a specific task we must complete with the robot and scores us according to how well we compete against others. We also work on side projects to present during the iSTEAM expo, which happens every May 4th yearly.
-Nathaniel Morales ‘24
Rotary Phone Demonstration
Jimmy Duffy is a senior at Fordham Prep and who takes the engineering science class. For the last four years, he has been an integral member of the Dramatic Society and will be pursuing History as one of his majors next year at The College of the Holy Cross. While he loves the stage he also shows interest in many school activities. He takes pride in being known as an 84-year-old by his friends because of his love for old actors, music, technology, and fashion. This love for the yesteryears led him to this endeavor, to make a rotary phone work again. But we’ll let him tell you more about that at the Expo.
Sports Analytics Club Program
The SACP mission is to advance STEM education in the United States and promote STEM relevant professional careers for young women and men, driving sports as the educational platform. The SACP’s transformative learning environment is built on interdisciplinary teamwork that excites mathematics skill development by teaching the “nuts and bolts” of data analytics and by preparing students to communicate data dashboard visualizations to key stakeholders.
The critical priority of the SACP mission is to address the under-representation of young women and African American and Latinx youth in advanced STEM studies. In the context of developing a national scale project, the SACP mission is totally inclusive of a diverse cross-section of students across cultural and socioeconomic lines.
The Fordham Prep chapter of the SACP successfully submitted a statistical portfolio in support of Buck Williams’ candidacy for enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame (2022). The 2023 project is a statistical analysis of the collegiate record of St. John’s great Walter Berry for enshrinement into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.