Photo courtesy of Mendocino County Office of Education
By District 1 Public Affairs
District 1 staff and members of the Eureka Section of the Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG) earlier this year showed up to support the next generation of scientists in Mendocino and Humboldt counties.
PECG collaborated with the Mendocino County Office of Education for the first time this year at the 39th Annual Mendocino County Science and Engineering Fair. Engineers and PECG members Nisarg Patel, Deep Navadiya, Brian Simon, Katharine Perrin, Kendall Thomas and Simons Latunde-Addey served as judges and evaluated dozens of entries that examined everything from water quality to how playing video games affects reaction time.
At the 42nd Annual Doris Niles Science Fair in Humboldt County, Ansel Ortiz and Katie Everett rated exhibits that asked questions about how doing laundry contributes to microplastics in water and the effectiveness of homemade fire retardants. In a news release announcing the winners, Everett, a District 1 project manager, said, “When one looks at the world through the scientific lens, there is no telling what can be learned and what advances can be made.”
Everett added, “Young learners are asking questions, making hypotheses and then testing those hypotheses. The applications for lessons learned from small investigations can have great impacts on society and the world.” She encouraged scholars to “Stay curious!”
Learn more about Humboldt County’s Doris Niles Science Fair and the Mendocino County Science and Engineering Fair.