Butler Intermediate High School ninth- grader Charles Simms, 14, presents his Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science project, "Practical Precalculus," to a room full of peers and judges at Slippery Rock University Saturday.

Butler County students represented over a fifth of about 480 competitors at an annual middle and high school science competition.

Every year, the Western Pennsylvania region of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science brings competitors in droves to Slippery Rock University for a day of public speaking, networking and -- above all else -- science. The top- performing students from this year's event, which took place throughout the day Saturday, will soon travel to the state level competition at Penn State University.

This is an excerpt from a story that appears in Monday's Butler Eagle.