The Pennsylvania Junior Academy of science, or “PJAS,” is an organization designed to stimulate interest in the sciences by means of state-wide science competitions. Each year, hundreds of student from all over Pennsylvania create projects to present to judges, in hopes of making it to the state championship. Among those students is Central Catholic sophomore Luca Consalvi. This is his second year participating in the competition, and, as most other participants are, he is competing with the hope of getting first place. Luca first got involved in PJAS last year as it is a mandatory part of Mr. Krotec’s Honors Biology course, though he is doing it again this year on his own accord. To begin the project, Luca first decided on an experiment, did research on the topic, conducted his experiment, analyzed his results and made interpretations, and finally he made a PowerPoint presentation on his experiment, which he will then present to a series of judges at the competition. Luca says that personally, his favorite part of PJAS is conducting the experiment and that “it is interesting to see how your hypothesis compares with the actual results.”

With all the fierce competition and hard work that goes into completing a PJAS-worthy project, one begs to ask: What do you hope to gain from this competition? Luca says that from PJAS he hopes to “Really just learn more about the topics I’m experimenting and gain some experience in case I ever go into a scientific field.” Lastly, Luca has this advice to give fellow students who are considering participating in next years competition, “Don’t shy away from difficult topics, those produce the most interesting results. And don’t procrastinate.”

For more information on PJAS and how to sign up, students can log onto their website http://www.pjas.net, or talk to Mr. Krotec. Best of luck to Luca and all other Central Catholic students participating in the competition this year.