While the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has shuttered schools for the past several months, one Parkland School District organization, the Young Scientist Science Fair, took the closing in stride and completed its first virtual competition May 30 via Zoom.

The organization’s president, junior Dharshan Tharumia, spoke with The Press June 5 about this year’s virtual competition.

Tharumia said the program was started three years ago by then-junior Sriyaa Suresh to teach sixth grade students at Springhouse and Orefield middle schools the skills needed to succeed in higher-level science competitions, such as Science Fair or Science Olympiad, through the creation of research presentation slideshows.

“Our main focus at the Young Scientist Science Fair is really to develop the soft skills such as presentation skills, clarity skills while talking, but also to develop the research skills such as note-taking, reliable sources, unreliable sources and presentation etiquette,” Tharumia explained. “They are all responsible for having a successful presentation.”

YSSF used a team of 40-45 high school students who have competed in science competitions, taken advanced level classes and participated in other STEM opportunities.

They serve as mentors for 30-35 sixth-grade participants during the organization’s biweekly meetings.

Tharumia was one of the original group of mentors before becoming the club’s president.

He said YSSF is unique because the mentors provide one-on-one assistance to students.

“With the one-to-one type of scenario, we really focus on individualized and personal support, so that’s what really makes this program unique compared to other programs here,” he said. “We see more than 90 percent of our students, our sixth grade students, earn a first-place award at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science, so there is definitely a high success rate.

“That really goes to show how important it is to guide our younger students and allow them to develop their skills necessary to succeed in these competitions.”

Speaking of this year’s virtual YSSF event, Tharumia said he had been keeping track of the spreading COVID-19 and the possibility of a school closure, but the group’s officers had not initially considered an online competition necessary.

Tharumia added, however, he made contingency preparations to take the competition online.

These plans were presented to YSSF faculty adviser, Springhouse science teacher Daniel Christman, for approval.

“I was really focused on giving a virtual event whether it was a live Zoom conference, like we had, or maybe it was based on a recording,” Tharumia said. “In the early weeks, we were still hopeful we would have an in-person competition but I was keeping the plan on how we can keep a virtual competition.”

After the pandemic struck, most of the other large science competitions, including PJAS and Science Olympiad, canceled their events.

Despite these cancellations, Tharumia wanted the YSSF competition to continue because not only had the participants already put in months worth of work conducting research and preparing notes, the event would provide participants with virtual presentation experience.

“I thought if these big organizations can’t pull off this type of virtual event, then I thought I could do this, if I really put the time and effort into this,” Tharumia said. “I was really dedicated and determined to have some sort of Zoom competition and give that same experience to the sixth graders that I promised in the fall.

“The pandemic really hit us hard because we’re missing one-half of the expectation we’re giving, so we did the note sheets successfully but now we have to allow these students to transition their note sheets into the presentation.”

After the March school closures, Tharumia, YSSF officers and mentors set up virtual Zoom meetings every two or three weeks for competitors to work on their projects and to provide constructive feedback on presentations.

Students were taught to use Zoom’s screen-sharing feature and learned how to create speaker notes, maintain eye contact, engage audience members and speak with confidence.

The club also held 15-minute practice sessions for students to run through their presentations in a competition-like setting in May.

“We had these May practice sections for one week that helped the students prepare for competition day,” he said.

Tharumia also hosted test meetings to become familiar with Zoom’s breakout room function.

He also met virtually with the sixth graders to ensure there were no technical glitches or disruptions.

“I really made sure everything could be resolved, at least from my end, for the competition day,” Tharumia said.

When the May 30 competition finally arrived, the participants were grouped into five rooms of six using the breakout room feature, and each competitor presented his or her slide show project to a pair of local professionals - doctors, professors, lawyers and scientists - who served as judges.

During the competition, Tharumia rotated between rooms to ensure the presentations were running smoothly.

He was happy to report that despite the odd technical issue, the event was a great success.

“I didn’t anticipate it would be this involved because we’re all at our homes and we’re all coming here with this virtual event,” he said. “It was a challenging environment but through my officer team and just everyone’s cooperation, the events went very successfully.

“Parents really appreciated the opportunity to have the students present, and it really gives them new opportunities if, God forbid, the coronavirus comes back in the fall and they would have to do similar virtual events.”

Tharumia looks forward to leading YSSF again next school year as president, and he hopes students enjoyed the opportunity to learn how to give virtual presentations and explore a diverse range of scientific subjects.

“After all, at the end of the day this is a learning experience for the students, so even doing the Zoom session or in-person competition, the students are encouraged to listen to their peers and learn about different areas of science,” he explained.

This year’s competition was sponsored by the Parkland Education Foundation through a donation by Frank Schweighardt, retired Air Products chemist and past chief executive officer and board chairman for the Da Vinci Science Center, and his wife, Yvonne.

All competitors received a participation trophy, YSSF T-shirt and chemistry exploration kit, which will be distributed at the beginning of the next school year.

The top three finishers for each room also received gift cards to Duck Donuts and additional trophies.

The recipients of the Founder’s Award, which is given to participants who displayed an exceptional work ethic, were Hafsah Hasher, Jerry Wang, Connor Daniels and Aanya Yadav, who each received a $10 gift card, as well.

Coming in third place and receiving a $15 gift card were Meadow Bracalente, Kayla Nembo, Anas Suleiman, Kush Shah and Saisuchit Gollapudi.

The runners-up were Wajeeha Siddique, Neha Atchyuthuni, Suniti Yadav, Emily Laputka and Santiago Colak, who were awarded a $20 gift card.

Finally, the first-place finishers for the 2020 YSSF virtual competition and winners of a $25 gift card were Jummai Umaru, Vishnu Nava, Anthony Cacioppo-Fisher, Sarah Tomy and Maddox Rampen.

Pictures of YSSF meetings from across the years are available on the group’s Instagram page, instagram.com/yssf.parkland/.