Winning Projects Selected at Annual Merced County STEM Fair, Advance to State Competition

The winners of the 2025 STEM Fair were announced on Tuesday, March 4, during the awards ceremony held at the MCOE Downtown Center. The event featured more than 100 projects from students across the county.

Student projects from Our Lady of Mercy, Atwater Elementary and Merced City School Districts earned gold awards with the top six projects in the competition. The top projects will advance the California State Science and Engineering Fair in April.

The top six projects of the competition are: 

-Michael Hicks, Micro Plastic, Our Lady of Mercy, 6th Grade
-Samuel Reyes, Joshua Ochoa, and Damian Birrueta for Fire Fighter Robot, Bellevue Senior, 6th Grade
-Alexis Silvar, Ariana Valdez, and Dulce Mora for Truss vs. Arch, Gracey Elementary, 6th Grade
-Elle Potter for Carb Controversy, Peterson Elementary, 6th Grade
-Julius Jean and Tyran Jean for Cleanarrator 5200, Tenaya Middle School, 8th Grade
-Trent Scheurich for Break it Down, Our Lady of Mercy, 8th Grade

Additional projects earned grade level award ribbons.

Student projects were judged by a panel of local scientists and educators from UC Merced and the American Association of University Women. Only students in grades 6 through 12 are eligible to advance to the state competition.

Participating schools include Bellevue, Mitchell Senior and Peggy Heller from Atwater Elementary School District, Burbank Elementary, Chenoweth Elementary, Cruickshank Middle, Gracey Elementary, Hoover Middle, Peterson Elementary, Rivera Elementary, Sheehy Elementary and Tenaya Middle School from Merced City School District and Our Lady of Mercy from the Diocese of Fresno.

Sponsors included the Merced County Education Foundation, Educational Employees Credit Union, PG&E Corporation and UC Merced.