St. Matthew Catholic Elementary School of San Mateo, California for grades K through 8
Search this site:
 
St. Matthew Catholic School of San Mateo, California for students grades kindergarten through 8th grade

Science Fair

Congratulations to Emma, Caroline, Gino and Ryan!

St. Matthew 7th grader Caroline and 6th graders Emma and Gino pose after receiving awards at the 2010 San Mateo County Science Fair. Not in the photo is another 6th grader, Ryan, who also received an award for his project.

The annual school Science Fair brings a showcase of science-based projects developed by students from the middle school grade levels. Mrs. Salvatto is spearheading the annual event. For the current year, only the 6th and 7th grade level students will be presenting their individually completed projects. Topics can encompass any science/technology category area following the guidelines set forth by the San Mateo County Science/Math/Technology Fair. Mrs. Salvatto had provided the classes with a wide range of science areas and suggested topics although each student was encouraged to think through other subjects based on their own interests. Students were not allowed to select themes that will entail animal experimentation or else any testing process that are potentially explosive and hazardous.

The projects will be graded based on the following criteria:

  • Content/Organization/Skills (40%)
  • Creativity/Complexity/Understanding (40%)
  • Appearance (20%)

While group projects were allowed in earlier years, only individual projects, i.e. no paired entries, will now be allowed to enable qualified project entries to potentially move on to the Bay Area Science Fair level. Mrs. Salvatto thinks that this annual event is a great way for students at these grade levels to experience the full experiment process using a topic and science area that they are passionate about.

This year's Science Fair process at St. Matt's kicks off in the fall with students selecting five (5) possible topics for further research. The selected topic will be used to develop the hypothesis and subsequently design the experiment process. The students will have weekly milestones that will measure their progress on the project.

San Mateo County Fair Open House

The individual projects will be reviewed and evaluated by independent judges from the San Mateo County. Each grade level will have a 1st place winner, a 2nd place winner, a 3rd place winner, and two honorable mentions, sending a total of ten student entries to the San Mateo County Fair.

St. Matthew had the honor of sending eleven students
to the San Mateo County Science Fair 2010
and six walked away with awards!

Mercy High School Girls in Science

Using the same criteria as for the San Mateo County Fair entry selection process, female students from the 7th grades will be named to represent our school at the annual Mercy High School Girls in Science.

Congratulations to Caroline H. (1st Place) and Elle N. (3rd Place)
for their award-winning projects presented at the
Mercy High School Girls in Science 2010 event!

Resources

 St. Matthew Catholic Elementary School of San Mateo, California

Website Quicklinks