Thursday night, the students involved in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science contest this weekend presented their projects to their parents! PJAS is an event where students can sign up to conduct and present various science experiments to promote thinking, learning, problem-solving, and science it-self.
Six Bellwood-Antis students are participating in the event. Eric Johnson, Noah Cokrlic, Jonathan Bickel, Hunter Shura, Chance Hawk, Ian Clark, and Damian Barnett are heading off to Saint Francis University to compete.
In preparation for their competition, the students presented their projects to their parents since the parents aren’t allowed in the presentation room on.
Cokrlic said it was scary to present to upwards of 30 people, but beneficial in the long run.
“I feel it went better than expected,” he said. “I was very nervous at first, but once I started to present it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I would say it really helped prepare me for this weekend.”
The students got to choose their own experiment from a set of 13 categories. These categories included math, engineering, computer science, biology, chemistry, and more.
Students have been recently presenting to advisor Mr. Goodman during their 8th period project based science class, but the addition of parents added an extra element of pressure, and some of the competitors thrived off.
“When I went up to present it made my nervous jitters leave because I know my presentation very well,” said Johnson. “Presenting made my colleagues and I ready for Saint Francis.”
Some of the experiments the B-A students did include the aerodynamics of a bottle rocket fin, the labels of sodas, the sixth sense, the electrical conductivity of fruit, the life of bread before it grows moldy, and the strength of fishing line.
The competition is this upcoming weekend! You can read more in this previous article for more details. Good luck members of PJAS!
