Congratulations to the Shaler Area High School team for placing 2nd in the Fairchild Challenge at Phipps: Challenge #2. 

The Fairchild Challenge at Phipps is a yearlong environmental competition in which students must complete monthly challenges, which will be combined into an overall score at the conclusion of the school year. In Challenge #2, titled “Shade Our Schools – Leaves Are Cool!,” high school students were tasked with collecting data and creating and illustrated field journal documenting their observations on how temperatures impact a plant’s ability to carry out its basic functions.  

The data collected by Shaler Area students will be added to similar data collected by students from around the world and used by a scientist at the University of Miami who is conducting a series of experiments to understand how leaf size, shape, and color affect leaf temperature.