West Shamokin Scholars Excel in Regional Science Competition

by Jonathan Weaver

The next scientific discoveries or breakthroughs could come via a batch of scholars at West Shamokin Junior/Senior High.

Nearly a dozen students from the school in Rural Valley competed with individual experiments at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science regionals at Slippery Rock University February 27.

Seventh and ninth grade science instructor Laurel Glover praised all students who attended the competition – which is similar to a science fair - and gave an update as to how they did before the judging panel.

“They did great – six of the (students) we took from West Shamokin got first place awards,” Glover said. “They did fantastic.”

A trio of senior high students and a trio of junior high students will compete at Penn State University in May.

Eighth grader Kennedy Eddy, of Rural Valley, tested the difference between composite and aluminum softball bats under different conditions, such as weather and the speed of the pitch.

An athlete for 10 years, Kennedy plays in a Ford City league and hopes to make the junior varsity team when she is eligible next year.

Kennedy has used both type of bats and said she tested both over a span of three days to ensure accurate data.

“I used to use aluminum bats, but I’ve been using composite for a few years,” Kennedy said. “I think that the composite’s definitely better than the aluminum.”

Her cousin, Carter, will also attend the state competition after his project observing the effect of radiant energy on different colors.

“When you’re in the sun, some colors make you feel warmer than others,” Carter said. “So, I used the Stefan-Boltzmann Equation to find the output from each shirt (color). The higher it is, the warmer it will keep you.”

For example, the blue shirt Carter wore before the competition would keep him warmer than shirts that might be yellow or white.

A junior high soccer and basketball athlete, Carter said the white or black jerseys have an effect on how much he and his teammates sweat, but not compete less.

“I think we overcome that,” Carter said.

Of the trio of high school students, Ninth-grader Sydney Dailey, of Kittanning will present again this May after her experiment on the correlation of beauty standards with the mathematical golden ratio of beauty calculation.

Dailey explained that the mathematical calculation can calculate a person’s facial beauty, mainly through the symmetry of their features. She chose students who might be considered ‘attractive,’ and found that they all had a rating of at least nine.

“Once you do the math, it gives you a rating out of 10. I got a group of students to let me do measurements and do the calculations on them, and then I had their peers rate them on a scale from 1-10 so I could compare the two ratings and see if there was any correlation, Dailey said.

“Surprisingly, their mathematical beauty was a lot higher than the rating their peers gave them.”

Dailey, a state finalist the past two years, said smiling can impact a person’s rating.

Glover has also sponsored students in the competition while she taught at Kittanning Junior High and at Elderton High schools. She has taught in the Armstrong School District for 10 years.

Glover said students are able to “tweak” their projects based off of judges’ suggestions to improve it.

Principal Stephen Shutters visited the students at Slippery Rock, and took them to lunch to show his support.

“The research that goes into some of these projects can be quite extensive, so we were excited about the number of first place winners we had at SRU. The students and Ms. Glover will begin immediately preparing for Penn State, where the next round is held later this spring. We hope to add to and strengthen the presentations that the students were able to put together for the preliminary round and have a strong showing in State College,” Shutters said.

Students from Armstrong Junior/Senior High, under the supervision of Christie Orlosky, also reportedly attended the regional competition.