Students take part in Hollister STEAM Expo

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Students from TK through 12th grade from private, home and public schools brought their projects to the STEAM Expo in Hollister on March 5 at the Veterans Memorial Building. Local youth competed for prizes and a chance to go to the California Science and Engineering Fair.

Tony Balbas, coordinator of instructional support, said the purpose is to celebrate STEAM—science, technology, engineering, art, and math—across our county and “the brilliance of our students, teachers, and families.”  

There were hands-on activities inside and outside the building, involving robotics, engineering, biology, archaeology and more. Over 25 nonprofit and for-profit partners and for-profit partners hosted 218 projects. 

“We have an archaeological excavation,” Balbas said, “with a mini-excavation site where they will dig up artifacts and make a necklace out of arrowheads that they find. Hills Bookstore provided STEAM kits, and the San Benito County Free Library had a LEGO exhibit.” 

The partners included the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which sent an archaeologist to the expo. Community Science Workshops brought its mobile workshop and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers provided circuit-building projects. And RAFT, an educational nonprofit, provided several hands-on activities. 

Hollister resident Jackson Mendoza was showing his project about the difference in speed between typing and handwriting, which he called “Rise Above.” 

Regarding the expo, he said, “I have seen projects like technology, inventions and robotics. I saw memory projects, food-related projects and also some involving biology.” 

He said he learned several new things about memory and attention, and also about how different foods react to each other.   

Pediatrician Nicole Shelton of Hollister Pediatrics said she serves the children in the community and wanted to bring science and anatomy to them, hopefully inspiring future clinicians, nurses, doctors and teachers.

At her table, the students got to put on gloves and manipulate a cow eyeball to get a real-life lesson in anatomy. 

“I want them to be inspired about their bodies,” Shelton said. “It helps to take care of our bodies, and it gives them knowledge and power as they grow or get sick.”

Many of the students said they thought it “looked gross,” but some still wanted to touch it. Shelton said she had a couple of students who came to feel it multiple times. 

“I touched the blue cow’s eye, looked at it and touched it,” Mendoza said. “And I learned that the color of the back of the eye is red. The retina is what you see at nighttime, when you’re looking at someone’s eye, so that’s what you see.”    

Balbas said the expo passed out goodie bags which included a book, science-related stickers, and various kits, including one for building a radio. 

“We celebrate innovation, creativity, technology, engineering, art, math and science,” he said. It gives kids a chance to explore these ideas further, outside of the classroom, to go beyond that and interact with professional scientists.”   

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