Socorro Independent School District

In March, nearly 60 outstanding middle and high school students proudly represented the Socorro Independent School District at the Texas Science and Engineering Fair (TXSEF) at Texas A&M University. Two middle school students placed third in the state fair’s junior divisions of computational biology and bioinformatics, and materials science.

First and second-place winners in at the 2023 Sun Country Regional Science and Engineering Fair (SCRSEF) in February advanced to the state competition. Students who qualified for SCRSEF finished first or second in their categories in the district’s middle school or high school science fairs on Dec. 10, 2022, and Jan. 21, 2023, respectively.

Among them was Nicole Fonseca, a mission Early College High School junior, who participated in the TXSEF after her project won second place in the Engineering Technology: Statistics and Dynamics category at SISD’s high school science fair and SCRSEF.

Fonseca’s project titled Disaster! Disaster! compared flat and pitched rooftops on homes in Latin American countries. Her goal was to determine which roof style was more prone to water leakage and which offered a better value for low-income homeowners.

“My project’s results were the roofs with the slants were better with water leakage than the flat roof homes,” Fonseca said. “In poverty-stricken Latin American communities, they’re often faced with the challenge of choosing the flat-roof home that is less pricey than one that is more costly but maybe better in the long run. I believe the determining factor would be how well the roof works which the water leakage would determine.”

Frank McDonald, SISD instructional officer for secondary science, said science fairs are an opportunity for students such as Fonseca to investigate and find solutions to real-life problems.

“We’re pushing kids to make real-life connections,” McDonald said. “We want them to have something that could potentially have an impact on the people around them immediately.”

Thanks to the number of high-quality projects, McDonald said the district has consistently had a strong showing of middle school and high school qualifiers at SCRSEF.

Sixty out of 83 SISD projects won at SCRSEF, including two of three middle school sweepstakes awards.  Edgar Romero from Capt. Walter E. Clarke Middle School earned the sweepstakes award in the middle school life science division, and Diego Diaz from John Drugan School won the physical science sweepstakes category. SISD also received the Certificate of Achievement in recognition for representing the most prize placements, scholarships and special awards at SCRSEF.

Overall, January’s high school science fair at Socorro High School resulted in 63 first, second and third place winners, and three individual sweepstakes winners. Mission Early College High School earned the campus sweepstakes award. Fifty-nine high school students advanced to SCRSEF.

Americas High School senior Maya Ruiz captured the sweepstakes award in the high school science fair’s engineering division.

Ruiz used 3D printing software to develop a prototype of a device that alerts users when it is time to take their medicine and then releases each dose on a timer.

“I created a medicine dispensing machine to help elderly patients who have difficulty taking their medication and keeping track of their medicines,” said Ruiz, who programmed the machine’s servo motors to deliver the medications. “They press a button, and their medicine is dispensed for them.”

Other individual sweepstakes winners included Mission Early College High School students Jacqueline Martinez in the life science category and Pamela Pina in the physical science division.

At TXSEF, 24 SISD projects competed in the junior division, and 22 projects competed in the senior division.  Four projects from El Paso schools placed at the fair. Among them were projects by SISD eighth-graders Joaquin Giron from Socorro Middle School, who placed third in the junior division category of computational biology and bioinformatics, and Diego Diaz from John Drugan School, who earned third place in the materials science junior division category.

Here are the students who qualified for the TXSEF:

Category	Division	Name	Campus
BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES	J	Malachi Valenzuela	Col. John O. Ensor Middle School
BIOCHEMISTRY	J	Jaslene Salazar	John Drugan School
BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES	J	Vianey Valtierra	John Drugan School
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING	J	Daniela Chacon Mia Senclair	John Drugan School
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING	J	Ethan Govea	Col. John O. Ensor Middle School
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY	J	Zoe Ornelas	William D. Slider Middle school
COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOINFORMATICS	J	Christen Mgbokwere	John Drugan School
COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOINFORMATICS	J	Joaquin Giron	Socorro Middle School
EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES	J	Rebecca Perez	William D. Slider Middle school
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS	J	Timothy Dubrule	John Drugan School
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS	J	Nathan Veliz	Desert Wind School M S
ENERGY:  SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS & DESIGN	J	Zamaria Colon	Sun Ridge Middle School
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY: STATICS AND DYNAMICS	J	Arturo Fong	Col. John O. Ensor Middle School
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING	J	Maegan Lay	John Drugan School
MATERIALS SCIENCE	J	Diego Diaz	John Drugan School
MATHEMATICS	J	Ian Flores Alejandro Fernandez	SSG Manuel Puentes
MATHEMATICS	J	Kassandra Huerta-Becerra	Col. John O. Ensor Middle School
MICROBIOLOGY	J	Edgar Romero	Walter Clarke Middle School
PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY	J	Aubrey Cameron	Sun Ridge Middle School
PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY	J	Eduardo Duran	Walter Clarke Middle School
PLANT SCIENCES	J	Skyler Thompson	John Drugan School
SYSTEMS SOFTWARE	J	Santiago Galindo	John Drugan School
SYSTEMS SOFTWARE	J	Hope Canonizado	John Drugan School
TRANSLATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE	J	Vianney Ramirez	William D. Slider Middle school
ANIMAL SCIENCES	S	Emmanuel Delgado Thomas Harman Matthew Estrada	Socorro High School
BIOCHEMISTRY	S	Chelsea Mgbokwere Alexa Martinez	Mission Early College High School
BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES	S	Erin Cadena	Eastlake High School
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING	S	Elle-Paris Avitia	Americas High School
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING	S	Aaron Mendez	Montwood High School
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY	S	Jayla Kaminski	Americas High School
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY	S	Aubrey Gabaldon Daniela Rubio	Montwood High School
CHEMISTRY	S	Barbara Sandoval Zada-Caresse Pomele	Mission Early College High School
COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOINFORMATICS	S	Jennifer Ramirez	Mission Early College High School
EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES	S	Zoe Brooks	El Dorado High School
ENERGY:  SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS & DESIGN	S	Pamela Pina Paulina Hernandez	Mission Early College High School
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY: STATICS AND DYNAMICS	S	Jerri-Leah Talamantes Jaden Ruiz	Mission Early College High School
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY: STATICS AND DYNAMICS	S	Nicole Fonseca	Mission Early College High School
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING	S	Vaeda Smith	Mission Early College High School
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING	S	Anabel Villarreal	Montwood High School
MATERIALS SCIENCE	S	Ryan Miner Niecya Windham	El Dorado High School
MATHEMATICS	S	Diego Sifuentes	Mission Early College High School
MATHEMATICS	S	Jose Alcala	Americas High School
MICROBIOLOGY	S	Paola Estrada	Eastlake High School
PLANT SCIENCES	S	Janeth Zarate Mia Arellano Ivana Alvarado	Socorro High School
SYSTEMS SOFTWARE	S	Carlos Yanez	Eastlake High School
TRANSLATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE	S	Toni Gonzalez	Montwood High School

Published April 5, 2023

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