50 JPII STUDENTS RECOGNIZED FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS AT THE 2ND ANNUAL STEM SYMPOSIUM The science department at Pope John Paul II High School (JPII) hosted its second annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Symposium virtually on Friday, March 26. Over 190 JPII students participated in completing scientific research projects this school year. After developing research questions, designing experimentation to test their hypotheses, and collecting and analyzing their data, the next step is for these students to present their findings with others. 50 JPII students participated in the Zoom breakout room poster session open to the general public. Student projects explored subjects such as “the effect of moment of inertia on the angular frequency of a physical pendulum,” “the effect of air pollution on the pH of the Jocelyn Hollow Waterfall,” and “identification of microorganisms found around the root of Panax quinquefolius.” A panel of judges, which consisted of professionals in the scientific, medical and engineering fields, evaluated each project on a strict rubric and presented awards of merit to each student. Fifteen students received Gold Awards, 19 received Silver Awards, and 13 students received Bronze Awards. The judges were Dr. Keith Hargrove, Dean of the College of Engineering at Tennessee State University; Kelly Aldrich, DNP, Chief Clinical Digital Office from the Center for Medical Interoperability; Dr. Maureen Gannon, Dr. Karin Bosma, Matthew Cottam, Sarah Graff, Arya Nakhe, Nate Klopfenstein, and Thao Le, researchers at Vanderbilt University; Patrick Griffin, researcher at Harvard Medical School; Jim Harrison, Principal at Civil Site Design Group; Dr. Rebecca Key, engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center; Dr. Kathleen Hruska, Co-Director of the Hereditary Cancer Program at GeneDx; Dr. David Jansing, electrical engineer at the John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab; Andrew Jansing-Kaestner, civil engineer at Aecom; Demisha Porter, researcher at Virginia Tech; Vance Pounders, DPT at Sumner Regional Medical Center; and Lizzy McAlister, Noyce Fellow in Geology at University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. The symposium also included a keynote address from Mr. Patrick Griffin, a JPII alumni (℅ 2012) and current Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on epigenetic changes that occur during the aging process and building machine learning models of aging that provide epigenetic “clocks” to predict age and track longevity interventions. He has authored 7 research papers and is the inventor on a patent related to machine learning age prediction from DNA.
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