Students from the Merced City School District swept the top three spots at the Merced County Office of Education STEM Fair on Wednesday.  STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math.

 

The event showcased 33 science projects from 66 students in grades 5 through 8.  In addition to MCSD, the other participating school districts included Atwater Elementary, Delhi Unified, and Our Lady of Mercy.  The exhibits were judged by local scientists or professors from UC Merced and Merced College, among others.

 

For the overall competition, Tenaya Middle School 7th graders David Lee Hernandez and Eric Amezquita took third place for “The Domino Theory,” Jonathan Lopez-Hernandez, also a Tenaya 7th grader, took second place for “Magnets That Charge” and Hoover Middle School 8th grader Sadies Dinh took the top spot with “Can Dog Drool Kill Bacteria?”

 

Those top three exhibits will compete in the California State Science Fair on April 24-25 at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

 

Several MCSD students also earned top honors for their individual grade levels.  For fifth grade, Givens Elementary student Dana Saeteurn earned first place for "A Video Game for the Blind."  Reyes Elementary fifth graders Kayla Alvarado, Julian Ponce, and Lesly Navarro-Chavez earned second place for "Paper Robotic Hands," and Burbank figth graders Claire Chuang and Sophie Zhu received third place with "Potato Chip."  In the sixth grade contest, Rivera Elementary students Zon Forest Moua, Jacob Schwessinger, and Prabdeep Kera received third place for "Power from the Water."  Tenaya students swept the seventh grade contest.  In addition to the overall winners mentioned above who earned first and second place for their grade level, Aidan Mondo earned third place for "Can Certain Materials Block Wifi Signals?"  For the eighth grade competition, in addition to Dinh taking the top spot, Rivera Middle School students Allen Arganda and Jesus Zaragoza received second place for "Comparison of Dissolving Times of Alka-Seltzer in Water, Coca-Cola, and Gatorade," while Tenaya students Cristal Esquivel-Salas, Aaliyah Martinez, and Joslin Diaz earned third for "Is the Bottled Water We Drink Actually Healthy?"

 

In addition to projects from Merced County schools, other exhibits during the STEM Fair included Merced Educational Television (METV), the MCOE Fab Lab and MCOE Educational Technology Center.  This event was made possible by sponsorship from PG&E and MID.

 

Congratulations to all of the winners!  These are photos of those who were able to attend the ceremony at the Merced County Fairgrounds: