RIVERSIDE – Deploying artificial intelligence models to more efficiently identify tumors, a quest to build a better bath bomb that led to a “sneeze-nado”, and exploring the consciousness of water, are just a few of the unique student projects set to be exhibited at the Riverside County Science and Engineering Fair on Friday, February 28, 2025.
A total of 490 students from 28 affiliate fairs representing public, charter, and private schools, will present their findings in 352 projects spanning 22 subject matter categories from Biochemistry and Electrical Engineering to Physics and Plant Science.
Judging will take place on Friday, February 28, but is not open to the public. Admission is free for public viewing on Saturday, March 1, 2025, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Riverside Convention Center (3637 Fifth Street, Riverside CA). The awards ceremony, which is open to the public, will also take place at the Riverside Convention Center on March 1 at 12 p.m., where gold, and silver (runner-up) medals will be presented. Community awards will also be announced during the awards ceremony.
“The future of our world is being shaped by the students who are building their STEM skills in the classrooms and labs of extraordinary educators throughout Riverside County every single day,” said Riverside County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Edwin Gomez. “The projects at the Riverside County Science and Engineering Fair are an inspiring example of the power of curiosity, problem-solving, and ingenuity.”
Within each of the 22 subject matter categories, students will compete in the Grade 4/5 division, Junior division (grades 6-8), and Senior division (high school). Winners in the Junior and Senior division will advance to the California State Science and Engineering Fair to be held later this spring. Sweepstakes awards will be presented to one project in Grades 4/5 division, one project in the Junior division, and one project in the Senior division. Three Senior division students will advance to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering (ISEF) Fair to be held May 10-16, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio.
Participating districts and charter/private schools include:
- Alvord USD
- Banning USD
- Beaumont USD
- Chammakilawish Pechanga School
- Coachella Valley USD
- Corona-Norco USD
- Desert Center USD
- Desert Sands USD
- Hemet USD
- Jurupa USD
- Lake Elsinore USD
- Mission Vista Academy
- Moreno Valley USD
- Nuview Union SD
- Palm Springs USD
- Palo Verde USD
- Perris Elementary SD
- REACH Leadership STEAM Academy
- River Springs Charter
- Riverside USD
- Romoland SD
- Sacred Heart School
- San Jacinto USD
- St. Catherine’s of Alexandria School
- St. Edward’s School
- Sycamore Academy Charter
- Temecula Preparatory School
- Val Verde USD
Examples of entries from this year’s event include:
Project Title: What Color Light Makes a Lavender Plant Grow the Quickest?
Student: Kaydence Contreras
Grade: 4
School/District: Katherine Finchy Elementary School, Palm Springs Unified School District
Project Description: I chose this project because it will improve how people grow their plants. I measured the growth of these plants under red UV light, blue UV light, and sunlight.
Project Title: Can a Homemade Chuck E. Cheese Animatronic Replace the Discontinued Chuck E. Cheese Animatronic?
Students: Eli Woodson
Grade: 8
School/District: River Springs Charter School
Project Description: If you've visited a Chuck E. Cheese recently, you may have noticed that the beloved and iconic Chuck E. Cheese animatronics no longer animate. To many customers' dismay, the company is phasing out this feature in favor of newer, more reliable technologies. But is there a way to keep this beloved character alive through homemade technologies and programming? In this project, a young engineer and Chuck E. Cheese enthusiast tackles this feat while exploring all the challenges in doing so.
Project Title: Dicey Decisions
Students: Nohely Meza, Kamila Beltran, and Valeria Rodriguez
Grade: 6
School/District: Palm View Elementary School, Coachella Valley Unified School District
Project Description: For our project, we are trying to determine if it is possible to get a 50% winning rate or higher in the game of dice. We rolled the dice ten times on each trial, and repeated all steps until we got to trial 200. In conclusion, our hypothesis was technically correct because we had said that it was going to be 20% and the result was 23%.
Project Title: Are Fingerprints Hereditary
Students: Delila Everett, Elizabeth Gagnon, & Iris Luna
Grade: 8
School/District: Ruth Brown Elementary School, Palo Verde Unified School District
Project Description: We chose this project because we were interested in learning whether or not fingerprints are inherited from our parents. Our approach was to use a magnifying glass to see if they were similar or not.
Project Title: Dancing Gummy Bears
Student: Emerson Craig
Grade: 6
School/District: Eagle Mountain Elementary School, Desert Center Unified School District
Project Description: This science project shows how to set a gummy bear aflame without using a direct flame. I had hypothesized that the gummy bears would be set on fire because the heat caused by the flame to the glass tube would heat up the potassium chlorate. A chemical reaction occurred where the sugar from the gummy bear was an accelerant for the combustion of the gummy bear.
Project Title: Bomb Fizzy
Student: Michael Marquez
Grade: 8
School/District: Badger Springs Middle School, Moreno Valley Unified School District
Project Description: Most people tend to crave a longer lasting Bath Bomb. My Bath Bombs were meant to focus on how much more fizz can be produced when submerged in water. My product was trialed and created in three different stages. When the different ingredients were measured and being mixed, the (properties) textures felt different with each one being chalkier or powdery. This shortly sent me into a “sneeze-nado” because of how airborne the compounds were.
Project Title: Frozen in Time: Exploring Water's Consciousness
Student: MacKenzie Lee
Grade: 12
School/District: Riverside STEM Academy, Riverside Unified School District
Project Description: Research that explores water consciousness suggests that there is a potential that we may not fully understand the complexity of water. French scientist, Jacques Benveniste, developed the idea that water has memory by discovering that water can retain information about substances that had recently been in contact or dissolved in it. Even when the substance was no longer present with extreme dilution the previous biological effect remained. Later studies included a double-blind test of 2,000 people speaking positive intentions into water samples prior to freezing. Saying positive intentions into the water samples influences how the water crystals form. Water samples with positive intentions received higher aesthetic ratings than those in the control group with no words spoken to them. This supports the idea that water may be impacted by positive energy in its environment.
Project Title: M³ PDL: Socio-Spatially Aware Monkeypox Virus Preventative Care Using
Transmission Forecasting
Student: Ayaan Sidky
Grade: 11
School/District: Eastvale STEM Academy/Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Corona-Norco Unified School District
Project Description: Mathematical functions have immense use outside the classroom, especially in applied probability and relationships. At the heart of calculus is the relationship between area and rate of change, which can be described with various differential equations. One such equation is the SEIR model for outbreak prediction, a math model that can be used to save lives. MPOXVirus (MPXVClade I) is a global health concern that emerged of zoonotic origin and recently began sporadically transmitting through human contact. This study implements analytical mathematical techniques in order to predict MPXV outbreaks, and improve the existing SEIR equations for prediction.
Project Title: A Machine Learning Approach for the Classification of Meningioma, Pituitary, and Glioma Brain Tumors in MRI Scans
Student: Cassandra Caluag
Grade: 11
School/District: Temescal Canyon High School, Lake Elsinore Unified School District
Project Description: Every year, nearly 20,000 people succumb to brain tumors. However, analyzing, identifying, and classifying brain tumor presence in MRIs require precise, detail-oriented focus, which can take a considerable amount of time. With a shortage in radiologists, AI models can facilitate analysis of brain MRI images, making the process more efficient.
Project Title: Characterization of a PFAS-Defluorinating Bacterium from an AFFF-Impacted Site
Students: Patrick Moon & Shanmukh Bachhu
Grade: 10 & 12
School/District: Martin Luther King High School, Riverside Unified School District
Project Description: Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are in every aspect of modern-day life in man-made chemicals found in food wrappers, pots, pans, firefighting foam, and anything that is non-stick. In this project, we look at one of the main methods for remediation of PFAs, microbial remediation. Through countless experiments, we were able to characterize and understand the potential benefits of a bacterial when it comes to the natural remediation of areas like the deep ocean that no normal defluorinating bacteria can reach.
Project Title: Come Play With Me! Advancing a New Learning Method Towards Pediatric Learning Anxiety
Students: Scarlett Kim, Anusha Mahajan, & Si-Jing Yan
Grade: 10
School/District: Centennial High School, Corona-Norco Unified School District
Project Description: Today’s world is plagued by stress and anxiety, especially with children. While these problems are sometimes addressed, many young people continue to experience anxiety. Certain ways have been proven to contribute to stress management, with two prominent ways including social interaction and play. This experiment elaborates on the study of Pavlovian Response and its effect on memory by focusing on combining social interaction, play, and Pavlovian conditioning to see if it can help with stress management and positively reinforce learning.
Additional details on this year’s event are posted on the Riverside County Science and Engineering Fair web page.
