Kentucky Junior Academy of Science

2020 Annual Meeting
Saturday April 18
This event will be held online.  We are still thankful to our host institution, Kentucky State University!
We have extended the registration deadline to March 28


Registration is open to any Middle or High School student doing science research of their own in Kentucky. The registration fee is $5.
The deadline has been extended to March 28.
Participants present their research as a 12 minute talk with slides and should be ready to answer questions for 3 minutes. If you have presented your research as a science fair poster, follow our guidelines to prepare a talk to share the same information you have on your poster.
Before you register:  Have two things ready
1. Your research paper ready to upload (up to 10 pages)
2. Your waiver signed by a parent or legal guardian, ready to upload (download blank one from the menu on the right)

2020 Tentative SCHEDULE for online program - times subject to change

8:30               Judges Orientation

9:00 am       Students log in 

9:30 am       Student Presentations  (session assignments will be posted in the online program)

11:30            Lunch break.  HS finalists  who will be presenting in the afternoon will be posted over the lunch break. No middle school students present in the afternoon.

12:15             Finalists session

            Business Meeting of KJAS, election of officers,   Awards Ceremony

See 2019 award winners and elected officers at the bottom of this page.

About the Kentucky Junior Academy of Science (KJAS)
The Junior Academy was begun  in the 1930s to foster an interest in science for high school students in Kentucky.  KJAS eventually expanded to include middle school students. The Junior Academy holds its scientific meeting each April.
Preliminary oral presentations (10 minutes) are conducted during the morning sessions.  The winners of the high school morning sessions make presentations in the afternoon finalist sessions.  Six overall winners are selected and these students are invited to represent Kentucky at the American Junior Academies of Sciences (AJAS) meeting held in February the following year.
The AJAS convention meets in conjugation with NAAS, the National Association of Academies of Science, and AAAS, the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As the worlds largest general science organization and publisher of Science, AAAS has more than 138,000 members and 275 affiliated societies.
The Kentucky Junior Academy of Science is open to ANY middle or high school science student in the state of Kentucky. It offers middle- and high- school student scientists an opportunity to present their research project in the format of a 10 minute presentation with slides. This presentation may be based on research done and presented in a poster format for a science fair.
Students wishing to participate must submit an abstract and a research paper up to 10 pages.
Students present in the following categories:
  • Behavioral & Social Science
  • Biological Topics
  • Botany & Zoology
  • Chemistry
  • Computer Science & Mathematics
  • Earth & Space Science
  • Engineering
  • Environmental Science
  • Microbiology
  • Physics
Presentations are evaluated based on this rubric:  Junior Academy Score sheet
Awards are given in each category, and three overall winning projects are chosen from Life Sciences and Physical Sciences.  The Kentucky Academy of Science provides financial support for these students to participate in the American Junior Academy of Science meeting the following February, as follows: Two first place winning projects receive up to $1000.00 per project; Two Second and two third place winning projects receive up to $750 per project.  Funding will also be available for up to 2 chaperones (no more than one per school), up to a limit of $500/person. (In the case of team projects the amount is to be shared among team members).
2019 Kentucky Junior Academy of Science winners are eligible to be Kentuckys delegates to the American Junior Academy of Science meeting in Seattle in February 2020.
 

2019 Award Winners
Grand Prize Winners
Grand Prizes
1st: Kavya Koneru and Jack Boylan
1st: Naomi Kim
2nd: Evan Hendrickson
2nd: Jiaen Hu and Eleanor Hummel
3rd:  Varun Chandrasekhar
3rd: Aamya Vohra
All grand prize winners will receive financial support from KAS to attend the American Junior Academy of Science meeting in Seattle in February 2020, as Kentucky delegates.

Category Winners
High School Microbiology and Medical Anthropology
1st: Aamya  Vohra
2nd: Jonathan Joh
3rd: Harshith Gontla

High School Biological Topics 1
1st: Naomi Kim
2nd: Aakash Vadhanam
3rd: (TIE) Smrithi Balasubramanian
       (TIE) Sreevatsa Vemuri

High School Biological Topics 2
1st: Jack Boylan and Kavya Koneru
2nd: Emma Huang
3rd: Rojin Shirwan

High School Chemistry
1st: Jiaen Hu and Eleanor Hummel
2nd: Shreeya Julakanti
3rd: Viyathma Hapuarachchi

High School Computer Science and Engineering
1st: Varun  Chandrasekhar
2nd: Nimish Mathur
3rd: Muran Srinivasan

High School Botany and Environmental Science
1st: Evan Hendrickson
2nd: Vasa Vemuri
3rd: Shyam Ravishankar and Ranga Chennakesavula

Middle School Group 1
1st: Sarah Kwasny
2nd: (TIE) Sarah Jenkins
       (TIE) Leah Niemann
3rd: Vedha Balamurugan

Middle School Group 2
1st: Swetha Senthilnathan
2nd: Eli Oetken
3rd: (TIE) Anirudh Srinivasan
       (TIE) Tejaswin Gontla

Middle School Group 3
1st: Mary Shea Ballantine
2nd: Varshini Loganathan
3rd: Chloe Nunn

Kentucky Junior Academy of Science officers 2019
President - Mary Shea Ballantine
Vice President - Naomi Kim
Secretary - Aamya Vohra
Junior Academy director Melony Stambaugh
Co-chair Bruce Griffis, Kentucky State University
 
Kentucky Junior Academy of Science
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