THE annual islandwide STEM Fair held at Chacha Ocean View Middle School on Saturday, March 8, featured 171 projects from private and public elementary, middle, and high schools.
The winners in the various divisions are scheduled to be announced later this week, according to Asapmar Ogumoro, the science program manager of the Public School System’s Office for Curriculum and Instruction.
“We [had] a lot of awesome STEM activities [and] we had 171 projects. That’s the most since Covid that we’ve had. We’re excited about that,” Ogumoro said.
To qualify for the event, students had to first win their school-level STEM Fair.
At the state-level competition at Chacha, students were arranged by grade clusters: kindergarten to first grade; second grade to third grade; fourth grade to fifth grade; middle school; and high school.
Aside from projects, the STEM Fair also featured a paper airplane throwing contest and a robotics demonstration.
The STEM Fair had 84 judges.
Ogumoro said projects from the top three finishers in the middle school division will compete in the Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge in Washington, D.C.
State-level affiliates submit their state-level winners to screeners at the challenge, and the competition organizers select the top 10% of all projects from around the nation, according to the event website.
Ogumoro said if students from the CNMI are selected to compete in the U.S., they get an all-expenses-paid trip.
For the high school division, the top finishers will also have an all-expenses-paid trip to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Columbus, Ohio.
Ogumoro said that traditionally, CNMI elementary school student winners have gone on to compete at Guam’s state-level STEM Fair. However, that will not be the case this year, as CNMI PSS works to find a regional competition for its winners.
“Because [Guam’s STEM Fair] is a state-level, not a regional- or a national- [level event], something our system would like to do is advance to either a regional event or a national event,” he said. “Guam’s been very nice with opening its door to our state-level winners, but we’re trying to channel or find national and regional events. Right now, there are none for elementary. We still are on the search for a regional or national event we can advance our projects to.”
Ogumoro was grateful to the participating students’ parents and teachers.
“Thank you for promoting your students’ interest in doing STEM and we hope they had a great learning experience. Thank you, teachers, principals, teacher aides for the ongoing commitment every year. This year is the biggest we’ve seen it. We’re looking for ways to keep the momentum going,” he said.
Parents and students view the presentations at the islandwide STEM Fair at Chacha Ocean View Middle School on March 8, 2025.
The islandwide STEM Fair featured 171 projects from private and public elementary, middle, and high schools.
The STEM projects were arranged by grade clusters: kindergarten to first grade; second grade to third grade; fourth grade to fifth grade; middle school; and high school.
