FROM STAFF REPORTS
Apple Valley Unified School District last week took home nearly 20 awards at the RIMS (Riverside, Inyo, Mono and San Bernardino) County Science Fair and two Apple Valley students received invitations to advance to the California State Science Fair in May.
On April 6, 14 AVUSD students showcased their science projects at the National Orange Show in San Bernardino. Approximately 950 fourth through 12th grade students, spanning across 45 school districts and 31 charter and parochial schools, were in attendance. Judging took place throughout the day and students were placed into one of three grade level determined divisions: Elementary, Junior and Senior.
The RIMS County Science Fair award ceremony took place on Tuesday. Two Gold Awards were presented to the top two projects in each category and five Silver Awards were given to the next highest ranked projects. Other notable projects were recognized with Bronze Awards. Overall, AVUSD students took home three Gold Awards, nine Silver Awards and two Bronze Awards.
Fatimah Bari (Vanguard Preparatory School), Jared Salgado (Sitting Bull Academy) and Akshay Srivastava (Apple Valley High School) each received a Gold Award for their projects. Both Bari and Srivastava will advance to the State Science Fair. The California State Science Fair will be held at the California Science Museum in Exposition Park in Los Angeles on May 18 and 19.
The top 10 percent of all Junior division participants are invited to compete in the Broadcom MASTERS, a national science and engineering competition for sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Bari, Deanna Schafer (Yucca Loma Elementary School) and Nathaniel Wood (Rio Vista School of Applied Learning) were each invited to participate.
In addition, community organizations presented approximately 15 awards. From AVUSD, Bari received the US Public Health Service Award, Sierra Franco (Sitting Bull) received the Naval Science Award, Ritika Sahai (AVHS) received the Society for In Vitro Biology Achievement Award for Ability and Creativity and Srivastava received the Arizona State University Walton Sustainability Solutions Award.