For the past two weeks a small, dedicated group of STEM students have participated in two different science fairs, virtually. For the first time in the history of both the Pennsylvania Junior Science Academy and the Lehigh Valley Science Fair the fair was conducted on line. In addition to being online, the young scientists could not perform their experiments at school adding a level of complexity to the overall process. However, MA students accorded themselves very well as these results show.
For PJAS, those students that scored above a 4.00 will have the opportunity to participate in the state competition in May. That event will also likely be virtual. For LVSF, all of our students will be moving on to the Delaware Valley Science Fair and a chance to compete in the Intel Science Fair for national recognition.
At the middle school level, students who participated in both PJAS and LVSF worked independently on their projects over the last several months. They were excited to present their projects virtually this year to the judges. For some, this was their very first independent project and their first opportunity to showcase their work for a panel of judges. For others who have previously entered the STEM fairs, they continued to hone their skills in both of these areas.
Fifteen middle school students in seventh and eighth grades participated in PJAS. Receiving second awards are Shaan Ailawadi, Brannagh Breslin, George Botros, Aadi Deshmukh, and Aayona Vikram. Receiving first awards are Nikhil Skandan, Ava Williams, Ronak Saramya, Grayson Domzalski, Brian Yang, Diya Sharma, Emma Xu, Hanning Yan, Logan Hancik, and Ben Greenberg. Those students who received first awards have been invited to present their projects at the state level meeting which will be held virtually in May.
Seven middle school students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades participated in LVSF. They are Maddie Yang, Anika Mehta, and Jonathan Kim in sixth grade who all received first prize awards. In seventh grade, Aadi Deshmukh (second prize), Nikhil Skandan (second prize), and Qayn Jaffer (honorable mention). In eighth grade, Ronak Saramya received a first prize. It has not yet been determined which middle school students have been invited to move on to the next level (Delaware Valley Science Fair) in the coming weeks.
Congratulations to all Moravian Academy Upper School students who took home first, second, or third place awards at the LVSF, including: Neha Skandan '21, Theo Orban '22, Mikhail Jaffer '22, Samit Mohaptra '22, Ilyas Kose '22, Yiyi Chen '22, Okezue Bell '23, Rohan Mehta '23, Michael Alchaer '23, Wisdom Ufandu '23, Kanchan Gupta '24, Ryan Paul '24, Rayna Malhotra '24, and Sunny Chen '24.
All of the MA sponsors, Mrs. Daniels, Mrs. Sheetz, and Dr. Kish congratulate the students that competed this year and wish them luck at the next level.