Two Upper St. Clair Students Advance To State Science Competition

UPPER ST. CLAIR, PA - Two Upper St. Clair High School students advanced to state-level competition after recently earning first place finishes at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Region 7 competition at Duquesne University.

Freshman Keshav Narasimhan completed independent research and a presentation titled, “A Mathematical Model to Predict Crohn's Flare-Up.” Junior Sophia Shi, who participated in a research internship with the UPMC Aging Institute last summer, focused her research and presentation on “Regulation of Deubitiquinase Activity in Mitophagy.”

The students are sponsored by Upper St. Clair science teacher Corrine Newman.

PJAS Region 7 includes Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Within PJAS, students do not compete against each other, but rather their experiments and presentations are judged against a criteria-based rubric. Students earning a first-place award are invited to present their experiment at the state competition in May at Penn State.

According to the PJAS website, approximately 3,000 science students from Pennsylvania’s 12 separate PJAS regions descend upon State College each May to present their research.

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.