The Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS) recently granted Western Wayne High School students a 2,000 grant. Mrs. Christine McClure, advisor of Western Wayne’s chapter of Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science, wrote the grant and is thrilled the students will be able to use it to pay for their Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science competition this year. It will cover at least three quarters of the cost of attending for each student involved. There are about 15 students involved in Western Wayne’s PJAS this year in grades seven through 12.
The PJAS students will attend regionals on February 28 at Wilkes University and could then have the possibility of attending states this May at Penn State Main Campus. The students are all working on individual research projects for the regional competition.
One such student is Madelyn McClure, junior, doing research on the effects of different protective boots on horses. Some of the data she is gathering is about how much heat the boots produce.
“I’m looking forward to learning more through my investigation especially because I enjoy working with horses so much,” Madelyn said.
Fellow junior Abigail Bell is doing a creatively unique research project on one of her passions– dance. She will study the effects of dance on people’s mood. She will achieve this goal by selecting clips of different dance styles, for example, jazz, hip hop, pom, pointe, etc. Then she will show them to a sample group and have them complete a mood survey afterwards.
“I am curious to discover the different types of emotions people will feel from experiencing various types of dance,” Abigail said.
Another junior working on a PJAs research project this year is Raegan Fox. She is conducting a biology experiment about the effects of bacteria using different types of body wash.
“I am looking forward to presenting my research at the conference this February,” Raegan said.
The district is very grateful to PARSS for the grant which will aid these students in their journey to participate in their upcoming PJAS competition.
Picture one, from left: Raegan Fox, Abigail Bell, Mrs. Christine McClure, and Madelyn McClure.
Picture two: Raegan Fox with some of her experiment work for her PJAs project.
