On Sunday, February 27th the IHS science club students were provided with their scores from the previous day’s competition, PJAS, at Slippery Rock University. Upon the arrival of their scores, came excited students, many of which move onto states in May.

The IHS Science Club, run by science teachers Mrs. Hixson, Mrs. Edmonds, and Mr. Lehman, and math/stats teacher Dr. Layden, attended the PJAS regional science competition at Slippery Rock University. This competition is the first of many throughout the remainder of the school year.

“I enjoy discussing the various student projects and working together to help students find solutions to the myriad of problems that crop up in the process. It always amazes me how my colleagues can come up with ingenious ways for students to explore their research with the resources we have, all while trying to guide students to come up with solutions on their own,” mentioned Mrs. Hixson

At this competition science club students within the same region also arrived at Slippery Rock to compete, each student’s project is grouped into a scientific category (ex. Biology, engineering, botany, etc.) theses students are then assigned rooms based on these categories. Meaning all the students from each category would be grouped together and present in front of one another as well as judges who were also present. Each category has a corresponding rubric along which the students are graded (this means there are multiple 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places throughout each category).

All of the students worked very hard in the months prior to formulate their projects and presentations. Their preparations include everything from testing and taking data to interviewing students and putting together statistics. Throughout the day, students got to hear others’ presentations, present their own work, explore some areas of slippery rock university, have downtime to discuss and work off some nerves, and of course take the yearly photo at the rock.

“My project was about how magnets affect how charged particles move and I prepared by practicing my presentation what I was supposed to in front of other classes, as well as outside of school, including on the way to PJAS,” explained senior Andrew Kuzneski on how he best prepared for the competition.

Although there was only a day between the presentations and the release of scores, students were eagerly waiting to find out if they had moved onto states in the coming months, a special congratulations to all of the club members and their continued hard work as well as to those who received special awards and those moving onto states.