Sierra High and Veritas Elementary School along with River Island Technology Academy were among 16 schools from five area school districts competing in the recent 2022 San Joaquin County Office of Education STEAM Fair.

STEAM — as in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics — is the expo formerly known as the Science and Engineering Fair.

The artistic element was added two years ago, with the Feb. 26 event being the 63rd year of the SJCOE fair involving 150 kindergarten through 12th graders.

The Sierra trio of Alfred Manongsong, Luis Perez and Lainey Mamuyac earned honorable mention in Engineering on their "Tele-Rotator Appendage" project. That was enough for them to represent San Joaquin County in the upcoming California Science and Engineering Fair among 9-12th graders.

The state fair is scheduled for April 12 via online platform.

Jasper Goto of Veritas took second place with his science project, "How do Video Games Affect Blood Pressure?" in the 6th- through- eighth- grade division.

Dev Aggarwal of River Island also placed second in that same group in Computer Science with his "Hacking Security Password."

Those involved had an opportunity to present their projects to volunteer judges, who were made up of 50 STEM professionals, teachers, and volunteers.