Pallavi Muluk of Marshall was one of a handful of middle school and high school students to earn a perfect score Saturday at the regional Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Competition at Duquesne University.
The 17-year-old junior at The Ellis School didn’t quite understand how she was able to pull off the feat, which helped her win $500 in prizes at the day-long competition.
“I’m not entirely sure how it works,” Ms. Muluk said about the judging.
About 800 students presented projects and were judged on the basis of scientific thought, how their experiments were designed, their analysis, and how they presented their theory and results to a panel of judges. Only those who got the top score in each category from all of their judges received a perfect score.
The competition encourages students to get interested in science, math and engineering at an early age, according to Susan Morgan, a 6th-8th grade teacher at St. Elizabeth’s School in Pleasant Hills and director of the science academy’s Pittsburgh region chapter of the academy.
She said about $5,000 in prize money was handed out at the competition. It was provided by the academy, local universities, companies, and science-related organizations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers. First place winners are eligible for the academy’s statewide competition in May at Penn State University, where about 3,600 students compete, Mrs. Morgan said. First place winners who are juniors or seniors are eligible for four full-tuition scholarships to Duquesne University.
Ms. Muluk’s project was called ”the Decoy Effect” and involved giving consumers a choice among three products, two related and one unrelated. She proved that the unrelated product can influence a consumer’s choice between the other two, making them more likely to select the one that is more profitable for a retailer.
Other projects included “The Moderating Role of Testosterone in Facial Cue Judgments,” “The Effects of Soap on E. coli Survivorship,” “Dietary Supplement Effects on Sea Urchin Development,” and “Optimum Amount of Coffee Grounds to Put in a Plant’s Soil.”
Len Boselovic: lboselovic@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1941
First Published: February 7, 2016, 5:00 a.m.