Every year at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, members of the FFA gather to compete in the AgriScience Fair.

The contest requires that students conduct research and present their findings in ways that help them prepare for their future and develop research skills.

Many students use the program as a part of their Supervised Agricultural Experience, a crucial part of agricultural education that goes along with classroom instruction and FFA involvement. In past years, members of the Conrad Weiser FFA Chapter have excelled in this event at state and national levels, with students placing first, second or third in the nation in a variety of divisions.

Each year brings new students and new opportunities to the AgriScience Fair, which introduced a new division structure for the 2017 competition.

This year, more than 150 students from around the state competed in the AgriScience Fair. Of these, 45 were from the Conrad Weiser FFA, many of them freshmen and first-time competitors.

Students from the Conrad Weiser FFA Chapter were honored for their research in categories ranging from food systems to social systems to environmental and natural resource systems, many of them placing first.

Among those placing first was Adam Zappacosta, a freshman who studied chicken feed as a part of his Animal Systems project. Adam worked on a team with Will Savoy, another freshman, to complete his project and said the AgriScience Fair will benefit him in the future.

Another team representing Conrad Weiser was Rini Kaneria and Lacie Pichler, who studied the effects of antibiotics on the function of murine mesenchymal cells.

Their studies earned them second place in their Animal Systems division.

Kaneria, a junior at Conrad Weiser, was positive about her experiences, even though her team may not be able to go to the national competition.

"I feel as if I learned so much just from doing this project," she said.

Cate Palumbo and Rachel Kesselring, two freshmen, based their project on a topic studied in class, Integrated Pest Management, or IPM.

When asked about the origins of their research, Kesselring said, "This idea was the beginning of our project."

Palumbo added, "The idea for our project happened gradually. We originally liked the idea of doing a project with essential oils, and after some research, we found that essential oils help with pest control."

That line of research led to their project about the effects of peppermint on the muscle tissue and digestive tracts of tobacco hornworms. It earned them first place in the Environmental and Natural Resource Systems division.

"AgriScience showed me that all the scientists who conduct big experiments started somewhere," Palumbo said,

Earning Best in Show and first in his division of Animal Systems with his project about gluten sensitivities was Joseph Gresoi, junior and two-time competitor at the AgriScience Fair.

He started work on his project in 2015, and with the help of some of the science teachers at Conrad Weiser, he shaped his research not only into a science project, but also into countless opportunities.

"The development of this project has been one of the best educational experiences of my life," Gresoi said.

Through his work, he has "had the opportunity to collaborate with scientists across multiple disciplines and learned more than he could have ever hoped for."

Conrad Weiser "Aggies" were full of positive things to say about the FFA AgriScience Fair.

Many are looking into applying for the national competition, which will take place later this year. Among them are Palumbo and Kesselring, Zappacosta and Savoy, and individual competitor Gresoi, who wants to take his project "as far as he can."

As for the rest of the Conrad Weiser FFA Chapter, they cannot wait to see where these scientists go in the future and what wonderful things the future, and their research, bring.

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AgriScience Fair projects range from stem cell research to measuring gluten sensitivities in dogs and humans - Reading Eagle