Three local schools — Veritas, EPIC Academy and River Islands Tech Academy — had students that earned awards at the San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) 2023 STEAM Fair = on Feb. 25.

Judges selected winners after reviewing 176 individual, group, and whole-class projects submitted by over 268 K-12 students in the county. In all, 22 schools from seven school districts participated in the fair.

All competitors had an opportunity to present their projects to volunteer judges.

 Over 60 STEM professionals, teachers, University of the Pacific college students, and other volunteers from the community helped judge the projects and conduct interviews.

Additionally, 20 high school students volunteered from Sierra High School and Lathrop High School to help interview the K-5 students about their projects and support hands-on activities in the SJCOE FabLab.

This year, the SJCOE STEAM Fair officially brought back the Expo portion of the event as well. The Expo was open to the public and included many hands-on exhibits from different community partners.

NASA shared demonstrations and models about the Capstone Project and IR cameras, SJCOE hosted viewings in its new Star Lab, SJCOE FabLab provided multiple opportunities for engineering and coding, Stockton Lapidary and Minerals Club showcased rock displays, Stockton Astronomical Society displayed and demonstrated the use of different telescopes, Head Start San Joaquin hosted a STEM-themed reading and activity corner, and CodeStack offered information about computer engineering.

The local winners are as follows:

Kindergarten through third grade

*First Place, Science: EPIC Academy (River Islands Academies) “Beware, Beware, Beware Yummy Growing Gummy Bear” Zoey Cabrera 

*Second Place, Engineering: River Islands Technology Academy (River Islands Academies) “Dirty Water into Clean Water” Varshitha Satheeshkumar 

Fourth through fifth grade

*Second Place, 4-5 Showcase: Veritas Elementary School (Manteca Unified School District) “Salmon” Mannat Kaur

Sixth through eighth grade

*Third Place, Science: Veritas Elementary (Manteca Unified School District) “Desalination Determination” Ayush Kumar*

*Third Place, Engineering: River Islands Technology Academy (River Islands Academies) “Insight Oven” Laasya Elisetty  

Environmental Awards

*EPIC Academy (River Islands Academies) “Is Green Really Green?” Vyom Aggarwa

STEAM Spirit Award

*Veritas Elementary School (Manteca Unified School District) “Hardness in City Water” Analia Carrillo MJ Bacnis