School hosts first science fair in five years

Assistant principal Victor Lara judges at the science fair.

Angel Rosales, Reporter
March 9, 2020

The first science fair in over five years was hosted in the commons. First place was won by Natalia Villanueva with “The Strongest Gel,” and second by Shane Avalos, Johnathon Salas and Aidan De La Rosa with a group presentation on “Turbine Energy Test.” There was a tie for third place by two groups; Victor Vasquez, Jorge Cisneros and Maximiliano Vega with “Reading In Between The Lines” and  Adrian Gonzalez, Jorge Yoshida and Ashley Campos with “The Five Second Rule.”

“The science fair was a great success thanks to our judges, faculty, and administration for the assistance and support,” Science Fair coordinator Ramon Benavides said, “We are already planning for next year’s science fair. We had 25 projects, and the categories were biomedical, physics, chemistry, behavioral science, mathematics, environmental, and energy.” “Biomedical and behavioral science were the most popular ones. It seems as everyone was intrigued by the content of categories,” Benavides said.

The students contributed to the big success of the science fair.

“It was a good science fair overall everything was set up neatly and the judges were chill,” senior Oskar Rosales said, “Just one thing that bothered me was that it took longer than expected.” “My project was about bridges and how they resist earthquakes,” Rosales said, “My partner and I built a mini bridge and put it on a website that simulate earthquakes to test how it would resist. We ended up qualifying to district so it was cool.”

Invariably unexpected incidents occur.

“There were many challenges setting the event up,” Benavides said, “First, I had a significant accident that required emergency surgery to the right leg, which left me in a wheelchair for two months. I was able to recover, but this set us behind quite a bit. So our students only had about a month to complete the project process. This wasn’t very easy because all the other schools started in September or October.”

Benavides is optimistic for next years science fair.

“This year was my first year coordinating the event and I learned so much. I hope next year’s fair will be bigger and better,” Benavides said.