120 students from CNMI public and private schools competed in the 2023-2024 Islandwide STEM Fair at Chacha Ocean View Middle School on Saturday, March 9.
To qualify for the event, students had to first win their school-level STEM fair.
At the islandwide STEM fair, the winners in the general science divisions were as follows:
• For high school, grades 9-12: 1st place, “Fantastic Plastic” by Gavril Myles Santiago and Heleyna Dela Santa of Mount Carmel School; 2nd place, “Paper decomposition and transformation into reusable form” by Ja Young Kim, Saipan International School.
• For middle school, grades 6-8: 1st place, “Insulin pills?” by Anabella Tudela, Saipan Community School; 2nd place, “Can activated carbon increase the PH level of water?” by Do Geon Kim and Cecelia Villagomez, Mount Carmel School; 3rd place, “Brighten up! Cus we got ‘ocean power,’ ” by Jesse Chen, and Julius Sheu, Mount Carmel School.
• For elementary school, grades 3-5: 1st place, “Lime acidity” by Amelie Ogumoro, William S. Reyes Elementary School; 2nd place, “Pickled perfection” by Simone “Aya” Smith, Brilliant Star Elementary School; 3rd place, “Growing and sanitizing bacteria,” by Jee Hoo Lee, Saipan International School.
• For elementary school, grades K-2: 1st place, “Heart pumper” by Aven Ihu King, Sinapalo Elementary School; 2nd place, “Fruit power” by Declan Spaeth, Brilliant Star Elementary School; 3rd place, “Soap vs vinegar, water, and Coca-Cola” by Andres Roberto, Brilliant Star Elementary School.
The first-place winners will move on to the regional competition, which will be held on Guam in April.
Research category
In the high school research category, the following students won:
1st place, “Advancing ENSO Prediction Accuracy with Convolutional Neural Networks and Distillation Learning Techniques,” Yelin Park, Saipan International School; 2nd place, “Mapping soil health across diverse environments,” Jedric Aniclebe, Gwanpil Son and Gwanbun Son, Marianas High School; 3rd place, “Leaf Mining Weevil’s effectiveness in diminishing ivy gourd leaves,” Simon Tang, Saipan Southern High School.
All student winners of the research category will participate in the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles this May. Their travel expenses will be funded by the Public School System.
Paper plane, other winners
The islandwide STEM Fair also featured a paper plane engineering competition. Participants designed and then folded paper planes before testing them against one another in a distance-throwing competition.
Garapan Elementary School student Seandrey Mendiola threw his plane 84 feet, six inches to take first place. In second place was Andy Chen from Agape Christian School with a distance of 75 feet, two inches while Oleai Elementary School’s Eumond Peter, who threw his plane 69 feet, four inches, finished third.
For their part, Zoey Amarra Gabor, Aubrielle Navarro, Joachim Maratita, Ja Young Kim and Ashley Cayabyab were the recipients of the Mariana Islands Nature Alliance STEM Environmental Award.
The Lemelson Early Inventor Prize went to Jayden Cantil while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Taking the Pulse of the Planet award was earned by Eianne Ladao. The Society of Science Community Innovation Award was presented to Simon Tang.
Asapmar Ogumoro, the PSS Office for Curriculum and Instruction science program manager, said he was grateful to the stakeholders who supported the fair participants.
“I really want to thank moms, dads, our teachers, principals, and our schools for supporting our students in research, engineering skills…promoting STEM and supporting them to get here to the state-level competition. We truly appreciate all the energy, efforts and time that went into this. And we hope that the overall experience will pay off in keeping the Marianas as sustainable as possible.”
From left, Aven King, Declan Spaeth and Andres Roberto.
Garapan Elementary School student Seandrey Mendiola threw his plane 84 feet, six inches to take first place.
From left, Jee Hoo Lee, Amelie Ogumoro, and Simone “Aya” Smith.
Hundreds of public and private school students along with their families were at Chacha Ocean View Middle School over the weekend for the Islandwide STEM Fair.
From left, Heleyna Dela Santa and Gavril Myles Santiago stand next to Ja Young Kim.
From left, Yelin Park, Gwanpil Son, Jedric Aniciebe, Gwanhun Son, and Simon Tang.
From left, Jessie Chen, Julius Sheu, Do Geon Kim, and Annabella Tudela.
From left, Seandrey Mendiola and Andy Chen.
Students fold paper airplanes prior to launching them during the paper airplane competition.
A robotics demonstration was among the highlights of this year’s Islandwide STEM Fair at Chacha Ocean View Middle School on Saturday.
In second place was Andy Chen from Agape Christian School with a distance of 75 feet, two inches.
