Gila Crossing Community School Holds Annual Student Science Fair

Velia Moncada

Gila River Indian News

The Gila Crossing Community school (GCCS) held its 25th annual science fair on May 15, 2024. 115 students from kindergarten through sixth grade participated in the event judged by five Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project (P-MIP) engineers and technicians.

“The science fair is just amazing,” said Karen McQueen, the founder and coordinator of the fair and a school librarian for 29 years. “It teaches the kids tons of things. It teaches them public speaking, and it also teaches the scientific process.”

Each year, GCCS faculty and staff coordinate with their academic agenda to involve students in the study of the scientific processes through the application of a science fair project. Seth Garcia, who teaches science and social studies to GCCS sixth graders, said the fair expands his students’ knowledge of the world around them.

“The focus of my curriculum for social studies and science is critical thinking and research,” said Garcia. “ Knowing the scientific method means understanding how we get information that we have about the world.”

Student participants presented their projects to the P-MIP judging panel, which included Hong Mai, Sr. Civil Engineer; Anthony Jones, Civil Engineer Technician; Jim Edison, Civil Engineering Technician; Raphael Pedro, MIS Technician; and Liane Iglesias from the Gila River Indian Irrigation District.

“I liked how we got to present things and show people what we can do and what we are capable of,” said Dani Miguel, District 6, a fourth grader who created a homemade LED flashlight from scratch. Miguel said her experiment would be helpful in case there was a power outage, so she can figure out a way to create light. 

Julian Miguel, a fifth grader from District 6, demonstrated the power of chemical reactions by mixing baking powder with water in a water bottle to create oxygen to fill a balloon. Julian said his fascination with chemical reactions stems from another science project, when he created a bottle rocket. He said his favorite part of the science fair was “the experimenting.”