Pingry offers a rich extracurricular program in Science. In this blog post, I will outline them and provide links for you to explore more.
Journal Club
Students, faculty, grads and researchers present cutting
edge experiments being done at universities and research institutions around
the world. This program is open to absolutely everyone and meets before school.
Thursday at 7:30 AM.
Faculty: Logerfo
Open to: Absolutely anyone who
wishes to listen, discuss or present
Science Olympiad
Both the middle school and the upper school have Science Olympiad teams. Members prepare for and compete in events in the New Jersey Science Olympiad. Events include bridge building, aerodynamics and a broad range of other scientific topics
Faculty: Tambor, Huang-Hobbs (middle school), Kehoe (upper school)
Open to: Middle School, 9th grade
Astrophotography Club
Using Pingry's Telescope to capture Lunar, Planetary or Deep Sky images. Nightscape photography, capturing images of the Milkyway, Star Trails and Light Painting.
Faculty: Toner
Open to: All students
Project 80
Students use science to educate themselves and others so that they can affect change in the world around them. Students are making commercials, hosting talks, and having fun with science in general.
Faculty: Coe
Open to: All students in the Upper School
FTC 6069 and FRC 2577 are competitive academic teams with the objective to design and build robots for, respectively, the FIRST Tech Challenge, starting in September, and FIRST Robotics Competition, starting in January. The teams is divided into student-led programming, electrical, mechanical, and public relations sub teams.
Open to: All Students in the Upper School
Pingry Community Research Journal (PCR) is a student-edited publication that is an outlet for student-researchers to communicate their findings. Publishing one’s work to the larger community is a main end goal of all scientific research.
Faculty: Maxwell
Open to: All Students in the Upper School
Anatomy Club
Students meet approximately once per month to examine the anatomy of different organisms by dissection. Meetings are monthly during CP.
Faculty: Torres
Open to: All Students in the Upper School
Students collaborate with scientists to learn about a
researcher's field of study. Using a three dimensional printer, students create
models of protein structures to help them explain complicated biological
processes. Students then present their work at a national scientific
conference.
Faculty: D’Ausilio
Open to: Sophomores
Students identify and analyze DNA sequences from the duckweed Landoltia punctata. Once completed, the student's sequence is published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database for scientists to access.
Faculty: Maxwell
Open to: Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors
iRT
The Independent Research Team is a group of small teams doing original research on topics ranging from molecular biology to physics to computer science. Each team is lead by a senior student and a faculty mentor who are responsible for teaching underclassmen, collaborating with scientists at nearby universities, and driving the project forward. All projects are novel, student-driven, and grounded in the current scientific literature.
Faculty: Kirkhart
Open to: Sophomores, Juniors, or
Seniors
The following are actually classes, but provide options for individual research projects.
Introduction to Scientific Research: Methods in Molecular
Biology
The research course is a science elective open to students
in their junior and senior years. In this course, students learn a variety of
molecular biology techniques while completing a yearlong project designed to
isolate a specific enzyme from bacterial cells and test its activity. They also
gain experience in reading primary scientific literature in the field of
biomedical research. Students who take the research course for the second year
focus on designing an individual research project using skills they have
learned in the first year of the course.
Faculty: D’Ausilio
Open to: Juniors and Seniors
AP Biology Master Projects
Students conduct independent research projects based on
individual interest. This includes choosing a project, proposing a
budget, designing and conducting experiments, analyzing results, and
communicating findings. Students present a poster to the public at
Exhibit: Science and publish an article in Pingry Community Research Journal.
Faculty: Maxwell
Open to: Juniors and Seniors
