The S.C. Junior Academy of Science holds winter workshop
By McKenzie Sunday

Ella Soltz, president of SCJAS, and Rebecca Chappell, a member of SCJAS and a junior at A.C. Flora.

The South Carolina Junior Academy of Science (SCJAS) held a winter workshop at A.C. Flora High School February 2.

As Ella Soltz, president of the A.C. Flora SCJAS club said, "SCJAS allows for high school kids to experience what real science lectures are like."

The workshops featured several speakers including Patrick Rybarczyk, Dr. Sandra Kelly, Frank Avignone, and the keynote speaker, Dr. Gordon Baylis.

Dr. Baylis, from USC, held a presentation on MRI machines and showed the young students human brains.

Other speakers, many from the USC Departments of Physics, Biology, and Engineering, taught sessions on different fields of science and mathematics, like game theory and genetics.

Flora also held an engineering contest where contestants designed their own balloon rocket that would travel down a string line and return. While none of the creations succeeded, Irmo High School won the challenge for having the best design.

(l to r) Anna Hegquist, Chase Levinson, Steven Osmanski, and Chris Muthig helped with the workshop.

In the afternoon some of the schools competed in the Challenge Bowl, which tested the teams' knowledge of science of physics, biology, and chemistry. Academic Magnet of Charleston won the challenge, followed by Marion High School in second place, and Irmo High in third place.

"It was really impressive how knowledgeable some of the high school students were in the challenge and similarly how creative people were in the engineering contest," said Soltz.

Flora had around 130 students come to the workshop from seven different schools.