County students win big at meet
SLIPPERY ROCK — Junior and senior high school students from Butler County schools were winners at the Region 9 Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) competition at Slippery Rock University.
The 54th annual science meet on Feb. 26 attracted nearly 500 students who presented their science research for judging.
Seven Fields senior Marc Williams won a $12,000 SRU scholarship, or $3,000 annually, should he choose to attend the university.
Williams, who attends Quigley Catholic High School, presented, “Would You Drink Acid?” in the chemistry category. His teacher was Janet Bonislawsky.
SRU’s biology, mathematics and chemistry departments each awarded $100 prizes to the top senior high and junior high presentations in their respective disciplines.
In Butler County:
• Freeport ninth-grade student Taylor Borrelli won the junior high school biology award for her project “Will water boiled in the microwave inhibit E. coli better than water boiled on the stove?”
Borrelli’s teacher, Donald Orlowski, won $200 for science supplies.
• Butler eighth-grade student Lake Sankey won the junior high school mathematics award for his program “Crazy Eights.”
• Freeport junior Tim Borrelli won the chemistry award for his investigation, “Does UV light affect the strength of monofilament fishing line?”
• Slippery Rock eighth- grade student, Mark Cessar, won the junior high chemistry award for his program, “Which wood burns the hottest?”
Seven Freeport High School students earned perfect first-place scores in the competition. They are: Tim Borrelli, Nathan Disantis, Elizabeth Posney, Jennifer Matjasko, Ashley Sartoris, Andrew Sanders, and Wyatt Steele.
They and 16 others from the district, who also earned first place awards, will advance to the PJAS State Competition May 15-17 at Penn State University, as will all the first place winners.
Holy Sepulcher of Butler sent 40 seventh- and eighth-grade students to the match. Twenty-six made first place and will move on to the state competition.
SRU has hosted the event for 14 years. William Sigmund, SRU professor of biology, coordinates the competition.
