By competing in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS)Science Fair, students are able to learn life skills, outside of the science world, making it a unique academic experience.
The PJAS science fair took place on February 24 at Souderton Area High School.
The PJAS science fair is a competition that is formatted differently than most science fairs.
According to science fair advisor Karen Wolfe, PJAS is less of a competition and more of an “exposition” because “students are presenting their projects and being judged according to a rubric.”
“It’s like turning in an assignment for class and getting a grade,” Wolfe said.
Freshman Liam Connolly feels that the competition tries to promote an inviting atmosphere.
“[The competition] doesn’t feel competitive at all because you’re not going against other projects, you’re just going against the rubric,” Connolly said.
According to Wolfe, Souderton brings one of the highest numbers of students to the competition each year.
“There were 16 schools represented at PJAS from across Montgomery County,” Wolfe said. “Germantown Academy and Souderton High School tied for second most participants.”
Students who received a first-place award will move on to the state competition at Penn State University, which will take place in May.
Souderton has brought many students to the state competition in the past.
“At our school a lot of people get first place at PJAS,” sophomore Pranati Jammalamadaka said.
Wolfe said that this year, the high school has the highest number of participating students going to the state fair.
“This year we had 29 participants,” Wolfe said. “Twenty-one won first place and can move on to the state competition.”
Students participating in PJAS are able to gain valuable life skills which, according to Jammalamadaka, “[are] really beneficial for the rest of your life.”
For freshman Ari Swindells, the most beneficial part of this year’s science fair was “getting over my fear of public speaking.”
Swindells said she gets stressed before presentations, but the science fair has helped her gain self-confidence.
“I know what I’ve done. I know this project, I accomplished it, and it helps me, you know, feel that confidence when I’m doing other presentations in school,” Swindells said.
The science fair has strict deadlines that students must meet which, many feel, help with procrastination.
“I have the tendency to procrastinate, but there’s pretty hard deadlines that if you miss, you don’t get to compete,” Connolly said.
Senior Kyle Lockhead said that it’s easy to procrastinate with the PJAS fair because “it’s over multiple months.”
The importance of making these deadlines has taught Lockhead many methods of managing his time and avoiding pushing the project to the last minute, such as “giving yourself little goals” throughout the project experience.
The PJAS Science Fair is an experience that is offered to all high school students and many that are currently involved believe more high school students should try it.
“I think everyone should at least try PJAS once because it’s a really valuable experience,” Swindells said.