Second Annual JPII STEM Symposium

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.

2021 Virtual STEM Symposium Results

Gold Certificates

The Effect of Moment of Inertia on the Angular Frequency of a Physical Pendulum Matthew Shipley (12th)

Identification of microorganisms found around the root of Panax quinquefolius Yash Garg, Chaewon Kim, Taylor Mayes, JD Odom (12th)

The Effect of Air Pollution on the pH of the Jocelyn Hollow Waterfall Lyra Link (11th)

The Relationship Between Age and the Number of Fingerprint Ridges that Appear in Fingerprinting Mia Markham (10th)

The Relationship Between the Thickness of a Barrier Between a Magnet and a Bucket and the Maximum Mass which can be Contained in the Bucket Joseph Collins and Josiah Michel (9th)

The Effect of Fertilizer on the pH of Soil Lillian Pinkston and Tori Smith (10th)

How the Mass of the Counterweight Affects the Launch Range of a Trebuchet Xavier Burval (9th)

The Effect of Various Household Chemicals on Rust Removal Spencer McGhee and Corbin Van Gorder (10th)

The Effect of the Internal Pressure of a Basketball on the Coefficient of Restitution Chase Edwards (9th)

Silver Certificates

The effects of different shampoos on hair Reagan Berry and Haleigh Ryan (11th)

The Effect of Magnesium Chloride Mass on the Melting Point of Water Joey Grytza and Carly Le (10th)

Beam bending with rulers Lindsay Lorge (9th)

The Relationship between Magnetic Field Strength and Temperature Samuel Whiteley (9th)

The Effect of Temperature on the Mass of Crystals Formed Turner Curlee and Riley Surber (10th)

The Effect of Temperature on the pH of Distilled Water, Liquid Hand Soap, and Lemon Juice Sara Grubbs and Alex DuBois (10th)

The Effect of Bleach Concentration on Reaction Time of Rose Petals Cruz Grinolds and Camille Tripp (10th)

The Effect of the Flu Vaccine in a Specific Local Population Carlisle Brown and Grace Hurt (11th)

The Effects of Boiling Saline Water for Desalination Jack Oliphant (11th)

The Effect of Potassium Chloride Mass on the Melting Point of Ice Sophi Weaver (10th)

The Effect of Changing the Mass of Sugar Used in a Sugar Model Rocket on Thrust Zach Lance (10th)

The Effect of Voltage on Current with a Constant Resistance Sarah Flowers (10th) and Marie Gbadebo (9th)

Bronze Certificates

The Effect of pH on Table Salt Crystal Formation Harper Hite and Mia Picchietti (10th)

The Effect of Various Acids on the Mass of Iron Jack Hacker and Shaye Shankar (10th)

The Effect of Phosphoric Acidity of Soda on Temperature and Reactivity Luke Cole (10th)

The Effect of a Fertilizer's Makeup on the Rate of Growth in a Plant Angelique Miller (11th)

The Effect of Table Salt, Kosher Salt, and Himalayan Salt on the Boiling Point of Water Kaelyn Burval (10th)

Effect of Mass on Terminal Velocity of a Parachute Blythe Blaser and Alyssa Willard (9th)

The Effect of Acetic Acid Concentration on the pH of a Solution Abbi Clark and Drew Sikes (10th)

The Effect of Sulfuric Acid Volume on the Amount of Carbon Produced in a Reaction with Sugar Jacie Nisperos and Ava Valente (10th)

Pictures

Chase Edwards (9th grade) presents his research project, “The Effect of the Internal Pressure of a Basketball on the Coefficient of Restitution.”

Patrick Griffin, Class of 2012 JPII alum and current Ph.D candidate at Harvard Medical School, discusses his research on the genetics of aging.

Mia Markham (10th grade) presents her research project, “The Relationship between a Woman’s Age and the Number of Ridges on Her Fingerprint.”