NM Junior Academy of Science
2024 NMJAS Winner
The NMJAS State Scientific Paper Competition was held with the New Mexico Science and Engineering Fair on April 12, 2024 in Socorro. Congratulations to our first-place winner in the senior division, George M. Privett from Rio Rancho High School.
About the Program
The New Mexico Junior Academy of Science (NMJAS) promotes student research, participation in science fairs, and an annual written and oral technical paper competition. It is affiliated with the American Junior Academy of Science, an honor society that recognizes high school students for outstanding research.
Science education has focused primarily on the background and tools necessary to do scientific research, but there is little emphasis on writing about and orally presenting the results of research. The NMJAS Scientific Paper Competition was instituted as a means of aiding and encouraging young scientists in the written and oral communication of the results of their research. The NMJAS encourages students to participate in this competition, through which they have unique opportunities to learn a crucial part of scientific work: communicating their work to others.
The competitions are held in conjunction with the Regional and State Science and Engineering Fairs. They are open to all middle and high school students – whether public, private, or home schooled – from across the state of New Mexico.
About the Competition
The State Director is Jennifer Nilvo, nmjas@nmas.org.
Students can enter the competition even if they are not competing in a science fair, but they do have to report about original work. There are 6 regions and two divisions (junior and senior). There are cash prizes for top projects in both divisions at the regional and state levels.
Winning papers at the state level have the option of being published in the New Mexico Journal of Science. They also qualify to attend the national meeting of the American Junior Academy of Science (AJAS).
Students considering entering the competition will find details and forms on the student page.
Thank you to our sponsor!
Funding for the 2023 NMJAS competition is once again generously provided by Sandia National Laboratories, operated by Honeywell International Corporation.
