Dozens of students from across the Merced City School District presented impressive projects during a districtwide science fair on March 1. The event took place at the MCSD Professional Development Center, located on Brookdale Avenue. Each of the district’s 14 elementary schools had the opportunity to display three projects, and each of the four middle schools could select up to six student projects.
The entries included everything from wind power experiments to a test of drinking water quality to a video game for the blind. The students behind those projects shared their work with eight judges from a variety of sectors throughout our community, including representatives from UC Merced, the Merced County Office of Education, the Grassland Environmental Education Center and other professionals with backgrounds in science and engineering.
The judges selected the top 20 projects to move on to the countywide STEM Fair on March 22. That event will take place at the Merced County Fairgrounds and is organized by the Merced County Office of Education. The judges also named a first, second, and third place winner for each grade level from fifth through eighth. They are:
5th grade:
1st place – Dana Saeteurn, “A Video Game for the Blind”
2nd place – Claire Chuang and Sophie Zhu, “Potato Chips”
3rd place – Ryan Costa & Diezzel Munoz, "Can We Create a Safe & Easy Way to Pick up Glass?"
6th grade:
1st place – Kayla Alvarado, Julian Ponce & Lesly Navarro: “Paper Robotic Hands”
2nd place – Maria Ramos, Jacqueline Reyes & Julian Soriano: “We Got the Power”
3rd place – Donovan Magana: “Art Bot”
7th grade:
1st place – Jonathan Lopez: “Magnets Charge”
2nd place – Marina Aguilar & Nathan Helms: “Hydroelectric Light”
3rd place – Aidan Mondo: “Can Certain Materials Block Wi-Fi Signals?”
8th grade:
1st place – Anthony Garcia, Alex Hinastrosa & Abigail Deleon: “How Long Will it Take to Crack Your Password?”
2nd place – Cristal Esquivel-Salas, Aaliyah Martinez & Joslin Diaz, “Is the Bottled Water We Drink Actually Healthy?”
3rd place – Allen Arganda & Jesus Zaragoza, “Comparison of Dissolving Times of Alka-Seltzer in Water, Coca-Cola, and Gatorade”