pjas1

What is P.J.A.S.

P.J.A.S. stands for Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science. Currently one of the country's largest Science fair competitions. It begins with local competitions held in the school districts around the state where only the best will advance to a regional competition (10 regions in PA). The final step ends with a state competition held at Penn State University's main campus in May.

The goals of P.J.A.S. are as follows:
*To promote greater participation in
    science activities among the youth of
    Pennsylvania.
* To provide opportunities for the
    develpoment of students as thinking
    people.
* To improve the quality of achievement
    in the sciences and mathematics by
    encouraging students to participate in
    research and to develop original ideas.
* To foster an understanding of the
    operation of the scientific disciplines.
* To encourage the development of
    scientific disciplines.
* To encourage the development of
    scientific attitudes and humanistic
    ideas.

Students present a timed ten minute oral presentation to judges who are professionals in science fields where a state scoring rubric is used to evaluate each presentation on its own merit. The categories from which students may research include:
                   *behavioral science                                                *biochemisrty
                   *biology
                   *botany
                   *chemistry
                   *computer science
                   *earth and space
                   *ecology
                   *mathematics
                   *microbiology
                   *physics
                   *zoology

This project means:

COMMITMENT: Students must be willing to see their project through from start to finish.
WORK: Students must visit libraries, business, hospitals and industries to find useful information.
EXPERIMENTING: Students must formulate a purpose for their project, make hypotheses about the outcome of their experiment, and carry out experiments to test their hypothesis.
ANALYZING AND DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: Students must finalize their project with meaningful relevance ands useful real-world applications.
PREPARING AN ORAL PRESENTATION: Students must be willing to prepare and present an oral report along with graphics to a panel of jugdes.
SUMMER PREPARATION: Students must come to their first day of Science Honors Class with a list of potential topics/ideas for their project.