PJAS Competition Hits Stride at Penn State Behrend
College to host regional competition for third year
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will host the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) Region 10 competition this Saturday, February 21. The daylong event begins at 7:30 a.m. and utilizes most of campus. This marks the third year that the college has hosted the competition.
“Penn State Behrend is committed to being a community partner in promoting science, technology, mathematics and engineering to area school students,” said Chancellor Jack Burke. “Hosting events such as PJAS, and celebrating the successes of those students who participate, is one way we can help foster their future academic achievements.”
Nearly 575 students, each of whom earned first place in their respective school competitions, will present their individual science research at the regional competition this weekend. Those who earn first place will advance to the state competition in May, which is held annually at the Penn State University Park campus.
About 40 Penn State Behrend students and faculty members are among the 150 volunteers who will judge the presentations. A panel of two or more judges, including graduate students, college professors and industry scientists, evaluate each student’s presentation against set criteria. The students can receive a first-, second- or third-place award; judges can grant first-place awards to more than one student in each unit.
All student presenters will receive an award and some will be eligible for multiple honors. Those students who receive first-place awards at both the regional and state levels are eligible for awards of excellence as well. Region 10 expects to award more than $2,500 in special awards for students in grades 7 through 12 this year.
“Participation this year could mean achieving the $250 Directors Award, which is particularly important for some high school students,” said Fay Nelson, a principal at Our Lady’s Christian School in Erie and Region 10 director. Introduced in 2007, the award is made possible through the support of the Erie Engineering Council and a grant from the Erie Community Foundation.
A total of 34 schools are participating in the Region 10 competition and include Blessed Sacrament, Cathedral Center, Corry Area middle and high schools, Diehl, Jefferson, Joanna Connell, Fairview middle and high schools, General McLane High School, Grover Cleveland, Harbor Creek junior and senior high schools, Harding, J.S. Wilson, J.W. Parker, McDowell intermediate and senior high schools, North East middle and high schools, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of Peace, Our Lady’s Christian, Perry, Seton, St. Boniface, St. George, St. James, St. Luke, St. Stephens, Villa Maria Elementary and Academy, Walnut Creek, Wayne, Westlake, and Woodrow Wilson
PJAS is a statewide organization of junior and senior high school students designed to stimulate and promote interest in science among its members through the development of research projects and investigations. PJAS encourages its student participants to follow scientific methods and guidelines to select a project, research the background, formulate a hypothesis, develop an experiment to prove or disprove the hypothesis, and to collect and analyze data from their experiment.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, is a comprehensive residential college offering 34 bachelor’s, six associate, four pre-professional and two graduate degree programs with 22 minors to more than 4,600 students. Focused on providing a student-centered environment, Penn State Behrend connects its students to a major research and land-grant institution on a campus enriched by more than 110 clubs and organizations, 21 NCAA varsity teams and 19 intramural sports. Penn State Behrend is named in recognition of a donation by Mary Behrend, widow of Ernst Behrend, who founded the Hammermill Paper Co. in Erie in 1898. The Behrend family lived on the 400-acre Glenhill Farm, which is the core of the Penn State Behrend campus today. For more information, visit behrend.psu.edu.