District Five student to represent SC in national Junior Science and Humanities Symposium
February 27, 2015
CHAPIN, SC – A Lexington-Richland School District Five student received a top award at this year’s South Carolina Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, becoming one of two students from the state competing at the national contest this spring.
Chapin High School senior Jared Adams placed second overall at this year’s event for his presentation on the “Creation of a Gait Correctional Device to Treat Mobility Disorders in Children.” The Junior Science and Humanities Symposia (JSHS) Program invites high school students to submit papers on original research investigations in the sciences, technology, engineering or math areas. This year’s National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium will be held April 29-May 2 in Hunt Valley, Maryland.
“I’m looking forward to the national symposium and working on my project further,” said Adams, who will compete in the engineering division in April. “Beyond winning the award and competing in the national symposium, my hope is to get the device patented and get it out to all the physical therapists so that they can begin yielding better results for children with gait disorders.”
The idea for the research came from job shadowing with a physical therapist, said Adams, who aspires to become an orthopedic surgeon. Through two years of research, Adams created what he feels is a new, less cumbersome device for treating movement and walking abnormalities, commonly referred to as gait disabilities. The new device allows trainers to stand over the patient and shift foot plates, allowing the child to better learn the motion of walking.
Results from a five-week experiment showed patients walking twice as fast, Adams said. Earning a recent grant from the District Five Foundation, Adams hopes to make improvements to his model and make the device a viable treatment for most childhood gait disabilities.
“We challenged the students to find a problem worth solving, find a potential solution and test it…Jared’s project does that,” said Chapin High School engineering teacher Lisa Maylath, who helped students develop their projects for the JSHS. “His real strength is conveying and articulating the message and the story of how and why he developed his project. When he explains his project, you can feel the real impact his device can have…So, we’re looking forward to having him present at the JSHS this spring and having him represent South Carolina, the district and Chapin High School on the national stage.”
Several other District Five students earned awards during this year’s South Carolina JSHS. Dutch Fork High School student Olivia Reszczynski earned sixth place overall for her project examining cachectic responses.
District Five first place state JSHS room winners include: Andrew Shealy (Chapin High, Engineering division), Jenna Schiferl (Chapin High, Behavioral and Social Sciences division), Connor Blackwelder and Zach Spotts (Chapin High, Engineering division), Tyler Wrenn (Chapin High, Engineering division), Katherine Meyers (Chapin High, Behavioral or Social Sciences division), and Gabriella Herter (Dutch Fork High, Medicine and Health division).
The district’s second place room winners include: David Dunkelberg (Chapin High, Behavioral or Social Sciences division), Bobby Gradel (Chapin High, Engineering division), Jarrett Cantey (Center for Advanced Technical Studies, Environmental division), Zach Comose and Torin Stott (Chapin High, Engineering division).
Third place room winners include: Alexa Ussery (Chapin, Behavioral and Social Sciences division), Dillon Harper (Center for Advanced Technical Studies/Chapin High, Biochemistry division), Connor Walpole and Jason Shaffer (Center for Advanced Technical Studies/Chapin High, Engineering division) and Paul Hawkinson (Chapin High, Engineering division).
