Where Ideas Spark: The STEM Expo

Meet The Writer

By Elizabeth Manley

Staff Writer

March 21st, the day that months of work come together to present the STEM Expo. STEM Expo is an event for the whole school where students present their projects in one of the nine categories. The event is required for 9th graders, students in STEM Research, and students in Computer Science, but all the other grades are optional. The categories are Computer Science, Environmental Agriculture, Health Communication, Invention, Reverse Engineering, Robotics, Rube Goldberg, Science Fiction, and Scientific Inquiry.

This year, 17 groups participated in Computer Science, seven groups participated in Environmental Agriculture, and 23 groups participated in Health Communication. These are not all the students who participated, though, as five groups participated in Invention, two groups participated in Reverse Engineering, and four groups participated in Robotics. In addition, 15 groups participated in Rube Goldberg, eight groups participated in Science Fiction, and one group participated in Scientific Inquiry. Now that we know how many people participated, what was the event like?

The event was mandatory for all students to attend and was open to friends and family. There were so many people there that it was difficult to maneuver around all the clumps of people listening to the projects. In addition to students, there were AVC professors, SOAR teachers, and some of our STEM sponsors. This was an incredibly large event. It even had to be held in multiple rooms, including the cafeteria, hallway, and patio. 

Now, let’s talk about those projects! Students who participated were required to have a logbook and tri-fold and present their projects to fellow students and judges. Some categories also required physical experiments or machines, like a Rube Goldberg Machine, Invention, and Robotics. Freshman Meredith Valladares, who participated in the Reverse Engineering category, said, “Creating the project was fun, and research was hard work, but it meant a lot for the project. Presenting the project was nerve-racking, but the more I did it, the more comfortable I became. My favorite part would be painting the tri-fold and researching what we needed for our presentation.” However, STEM Expo wasn't all fun and games. It was actually a competition! So, who won? 

Each category had three winners, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, which were announced the following Monday during lunch in front of all of SOAR. Each winner received a medal and a round of applause.

	Computer Science	Rube Goldberg	Health Communication	Scientific Inquiry	Invention	Science Fiction	Reverse Engineering	Robotics	Environmental Agriculture
1	Murder Mansion Alexis Aragundi & Jonathan Holmes	Kaimebreyah Williams, Jacqueline Ballesteros, Caren Luna Berstain, & Sarah Ramirez	AI Advancements in Breast Cancer BellaRose Diamond & Solash Corona Castro	Factors that Affect Student Outcomes Jonathen Nguyen	Electrolaunch Hunter Heinze & Anthony Perry	Just Human Asia Alexandar	Mechanics of Melody Ava Manzano	Tidy Oscar Vy Chau & Viviana Cruz	Rooted in Memory: Plants Versus Neuroinflammation Photini Qarmout
2	Morales with Eclipse: Fractured YouthEvan Torres & Valery Carrasco	Marvelous Adventures Ethan Landicho, Daisy Sammons, Maya Strawter, & Royal McClendon	Heartbeats Chukwudinma Oninanwa, Alexia Ortega, Cynthia Obiora, and Omolola Lawal		RAMD Case Noah Rivas	Sunder: Changes in Genetics Kamea Cato		Project ARM Lauryn Sanchez & Jacob Carras	SSW-V1 Ryan Khatib, Marlom Gomez, Alejandro Galindo, & Richard Nguyen
3	Byte Beats Dorian Kanerval & Gael Foragoso	The Happiest Force on Earth Elizabeth Manley	Failures in Type 1 Diabetes Technology  Chanel Worley		Bioverse Antonious Sidarous	If Computers Could Think Gabriel Bagg & Sophia Vasquez		The SOAR Drone Ace Smith, Logan Redman, & Conner Smith	Project Deadzone Nathan Duran, Ethan Vilaykha, & Jaxon Carrero

Now that the STEM Expo is over, what’s next?

The top three winners per category will move on to districts, where schools from all over the AVUHSD district will compete. This is big for these students, so good luck! And congratulations to all STEM Expo participants on your hard work.