Guadalupe Melgarejo places 1st in Botany at VC Science Fair

Every year, Hueneme High School (HHS) organizes a science fair to showcase individual or team scientific projects that were conducted by students throughout the entire school year and where local scientists, engineers, community leaders, and parents volunteer to judge the projects. For many of the participating science students at HHS the science fair is a capstone to their class and an experience that inspires them to go into a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) career after college. The HHS science fair is organized every year by Kevin Callaway who is a passionate science teacher and co-department chair.

This year a total of ten science projects from Hueneme High School and one from Adolfo Camarillo High School (ACHS) were submitted to the Ventura County Science Fair on May 9-11. These eleven science fair projects were competing against over 1,000 Middle and High School Projects. Among these eleven projects, Harriet Ferrer and Brighette Ramirez from HHS placed 4th in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences category for their project titled, “Bioremediation of Oil Spills”, which also earned them a special recognition from the Coast Geological Society. Also from HHS, Shawn Mares and Euel Pamintuan submitted a project called “World’s Longest Straw” and they were awarded 4th place in the physics category.

There were two exceptional science projects that were invited to compete at the State Science Fair on May 15-16 because they placed among the top two in their category. Ryan Bunk, a senior from ACHS, earned 2nd place in the chemistry category for his project called “Nanporous Niobium Oxide.” In the botany category, Guadalupe Melgarejo from HHS earned 1st place for her project called “Eucalyptol and Plant Allopathy.” Guadalupe is currently a sophomore and plans to continue her project next year.