The Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) is a statewide organization of junior and senior high school students designed to stimulate and promote interest in science among its members through the development of research projects and investigations. The state of Pennsylvania is divided into ten regions.

PJAS is organized with the following objectives: to promote greater participation in science and mathematics activities among the youth of Pennsylvania, to improve the quality of achievement in mathematics and science by encouraging students to participate in research and develop original ideas, to develop an understanding of the scientific community through close association with leaders in the sciences, to seek the improvement of science club activities, and to inculcate among its members true scientific attitudes and humanistic ideals that shall lead to the greater development of service to man.

Student participants in the PJAS program are encouraged to follow the scientific method to select a project, research the background, formulate a hypothesis, develop an experiment to prove or disprove the hypothesis, and to collect and analyze data from their experiment. The students then prepare a written report and give an oral presentation with audio visuals to their sponsor.

Students who are selected at the school level then are registered to present their project at the regional meeting. The regional meetings are usually in February or early March each year. The students at the regional meeting are divided into units of around ten students who are all in the same area of scientific research, such as chemistry. A panel of two or more judges then evaluates the student's project presentation against set criteria. The students can receive a first, second or third award on their project. Each unit can have more than one first award. Students who receive a first award are then eligible to go to the State Meeting at Penn State University on the third weekend in May.

The judges at the regional and state meetings are sponsors, graduate students, college professors, and scientists from industry. PJAS has developed a set of guidelines for judging the student presenters along with a briefing format to assure that the judging is consistent throughout the state.

In 2000, school participation had grown from 14 in 1934, the year PJAS was founded, to 424 schools. At the regional level over 6000 students presented their research projects, while at the 2000 state meeting there were 2497 presenters in 290 units.

PJAS’ advisor at MMI is Mrs. Laura Nemetz.