111 students compete in STEM Fair

A total of 111 public and private school students from kindergarten to Grade 12 from Saipan, Tinian, and Rota competed in the state level CNMI Public School System Islandwide STEM Fair last March 11 at ChaCha Oceanview Middle School in Kagman, with several of the students advancing to the regional level of the competition.

The top student winners from the general STEM and high school research categories will have an opportunity to compete in Guam’s Islandwide Science Fair, Thermo Fisher Scientific-Junior Innovative Challenge, and International Science and Engineering Fair.

The winners of respective competition categories are: 

For High School Research International Science and Engineering Fair, in first place was Yelin Hetina Park of Saipan International School with her research project called “Detecting Coral Bleaching in CNMI: Via Machine Learning and Deep Learning.” Second place is Mount Carmel School’s Eunkyu Hong, Ethan Militante, and Paul Santos’ research on “Pollution is not Equal To Solution.”

Marianas High School’s team of Precious Valerie, Steffanie Nicole Hann, and Angel May was third place with theire “Paper de Musa”.

For 9-12 general STEM, first place winner was Linxi Cai with her research work titled “Finding the Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions on Saipan’s Costal Environments.”

Second place winner was Marianas High School’s Camille Alannah Sablan’s research about “Kills 99.9% of Bacteria ?!” Another MHS student, Gwanpil Son, won third place with his “Analyzing Muscle Activity” research work.

In the Grades 6-8 general STEM category, the winners are Alexis Salundaguit of Hopwood Middle School with his research work “Orally or Injected.” Second place winner was Chacha Ocean View Middle School’s Vicente Jesus Leon Guerrero’s “The Power of Wind ‘’ and third place winner was Brilliant Star Montessori’s Selina Santiago with her research work on “Cleaning Dirty Water.”

Winners of the Grades 3-5 general STEM category were all from public schools: first place was Tinian Elementary School’s Braiden Tutor’s “Creating Biogas From Your Pantry”; second place was  Sinapalo Elementary School’s Javier Sahagon’s “Hydroponics: Growing without Soil”; and third place was San Vicente Elementary School’s Dre Cabrera with his “IRONic Breakfast” research.

The kindergarten to Grade 2 general STEM category winners were: Sinapalo Elementary School’s Aven Ihu King’s “STRONG SHAPES.” Second place winner was Northern Marianas International School’s Ayumi Palacios with her work, “What type of food allows mold to grow the fastest?”, and third place was Koblerville Elementary School’s Autumn Basa’s “Carbon Sugar Snake.”

In the Grades 2-5 paper airplane competition, Huaen Chen of Agape Christian School, Dilen Quitugua of Kagman Elementary School, and Logan Daniel of Koblerville are the first, second and third placers, respectively.

The MINA STEM Environmental Award overall winners for respective categories (grade level) are: (K-2) Garapan Elementary School’s Joaquin Kevo Leomo’s “Free Power from Water”; (3-5) Tinian Elementary School’s Braiden Rutor’s “Creating Biogas from Your Pantry”; (6-8) Francisco M. Sablan’ Middle School’s Jude Burgos’ “FAIR TOWER: The Incineration Plant”; (9-12) Mount Carmel School’s Jude Burgos’ “Flame-Y Manure”, and for High School Research categories, there were two winners: Saipan International School’s Yelin Hestina Park’s “Detecting Coral Bleaching in CNMI: via Machine Learning and Deep Learning”, and Marianas High School’s team of Precious Valerie, Steffanie Nicole Hann and Angel May’s “Paper de Musa.”

“The CNMI Public School System Islandwide STEM Fair would like to congratulate all school level winners for advancing to the state level competition,” said the IWSF committee, which also gave thanks to all the supporting parents, teachers, and administrators “for guiding our students’ interests,” learning and demonstration of science and engineering research projects. 

“On behalf of the IWSF committee, we would like to share our sincere appreciation to the volunteer judges, Kagman High School JROTC, CNMI PSS AmeriCorps, Saipan Southern High School National Honor Society, Triple J Catering, Marianas Islands Nature Alliance, and ChaCha Oceanview Middle School staff for their contributions toward a successful event,” said the IWSF committee.

The committee also thanked Education Commissioner Dr. Alfred Ada, Board of Education teacher representative Dr. Dora Miura, OCI-senior director Jackie Quitugua, ARE-senior director Dr. Rizalina Liwag, CTE director Dr. Jessica Taylor, interim federal programs officer Jacqueline Che, Facilities Development Management Office, and State Infrastructure Technology Office. (PR/Saipan Tribune)