July 4, 2 020 | Issue 58
Upcoming Events

August 10 - Submissions close for the COVID-19 Virtual STEM Fair

October 1 - Deadline to apply for the Women in Technology Scholarship
Donate4Sacramento
As we all have felt the great impact the COVID-19 pandemic has presented to all those who call the Sacramento region home, it is more important than ever to stay strong and continue to help those in need.

Our friends at Donate4Sacramento have cultivated a list of ways you can help:
  1. Support affected families by adding to the United Way California Capital Region’s COVID-19 Local Relief Fund to provide childcare, meals, rental assistance and other essential resources.
  2. Supporting small businesses that are brick-and-mortar establishments, serving the needs of the community all while being 51% minority owned.
  3. Support local nonprofits through the Sacramento Region Community Foundation’s Disaster Relief Fund, which will rapidly deploy flexible resources to nonprofits working with communities impacted by COVID-19.

Donate4Sacramento has raised over $1.3 million dollars in donations, and hopes to do more with the help of everyone here in our Sacramento community. 
The COVID-19 Virtual STEM Fair
Sacramento County Students: Are you ready for an exciting virtual science fair experience unlike any other? The COVID-19 Virtual STEM Fair is a competitive science fair experience open to any 6 th-12 th grader residing within Sacramento County. Students will showcase their inventiveness, creativity, and determination to win up to a $500 cash prize, and to be featured on the COVID-19 Virtual STEM Fair website.

In order to enter, you must create a well-written research report that recaps your project. This must all be original work. Then, you will be responsible for generating a diagram that visually dictates a representation of the physical model of the experiment. Finally, you will need to provide a two-to-five minute video of you presenting your work.

There are two different grade categories with varying prizes available:
  1. High School Level (grades 9 - 12)
  • 1st Place - $500
  • 2nd Place - $300
  • 3rd Place - $100
2.Middle School Level (grades 6 - 8)
  • 1st Place - $400
  • 2nd Place - $250
  • 3rd place - $100

This fair is unaffiliated with the Sacramento Regional STEM Fair, the California State Science and Engineering Fair, the Broadcom MASTERS Competition, or the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). If you have questions, please visit COVID19STEMFAIR.COM.
Women in Technology Scholarships
The Advancing Women in Technology (AWT), a non-profit organization founded in 2007, raised approximately $350,000 for women studying at California colleges. The Foundation’s annual scholarships help women dedicated to furthering their education in the technology field.

They are awarding four $5,000 scholarships going into one of the following majors:

  • Computer Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Hardware Engineering
  • Game Design
  • Coding
  • Information/Cyber Security
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Robotics

AWT is accepting applications until October 1, 2020.

Sponsor STEM Education
Does your organization support STEM Education? Would you like to be more involved? Then consider becoming a sponsor of the NorCal STEM Education Foundation, today! All sponsors receive benefits such as being featured on our website and marketing materials. All the money goes toward increasing student interest in STEM! It's a win-win! If you or someone you know is interested in sponsoring the Foundation, either monetarily or with in-kind goods or services, please visit our sponsorship page on the website to learn more.
Murder Hornets:
Everything You Need to Know!
As of May 29 th , two new specimens of the Asian Giant Hornet, also know as the "Murder Hornet," to the annoyance of entomologists, have turned up in the Pacific Northwest of the US. The large yellow-and-black predator was found near Custer, Washington, and was likely a queen looking for a place to settle down with her colony. 

This hornet, despite the apocalyptic-sounding name, earned its scary moniker from its innate ability to bite the head off a honeybee, and take it home to its young hornets. Here is everything you need to know:

Is this ‘invasion of the giant hornet’ really new?
Not at all. In September 2019, beekeepers tracked down and destroyed a giant hornet nest about the diameter of a large grapefruit near a public footpath in Nanaimo near Vancouver, Canada. Lone flying hornets also showed up on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, one at a hummingbird feeder near Blaine, Wash.

Why do the hornets attack honeybees?
The "Murder Hornets" do not necessarily gravitate towards honeybees. They need meat to feed their young, unlike honeybees, which collect plant pollen as baby food. Worker hornets will go for beetles, but as the chill of the Fall approaches, the hornets make more aggressive attacks on high-value targets such as yellow jackets, and other species of hornets.

Just how deadly is the Asian Giant Hornet?
The Asian Giant Hornet delivers a fairly strong dose of venom directly into its target. Unlike honeybees, the Asian Giant Hornet can sting multiple times. It delivers about 1,100 micrograms per individual (more than 7% stronger than a honeybee), which has a 50% chance of killing a decent-sized rodent with just one sting.

But do not be too scared. Researchers estimate that a sting from this species is equivalent to three to ten yellow jackets stinging simultaneously. “That’s painful, but not the end of the world,” Justin Schmidt, of the Southwestern Biological Institute and University of Arizona in Tucson. Read more about these interesting creatures here!
Science Spotlight
Nose-Horned Dragon Lizard Resurges in Indonesia
Nearly 130 years ago, Italian explorer Elio Modigliani arrived at a natural history museum in Genoa with the discovery of a lifetime -- a nose-horned lizard that can shift shades like a chameleon that he had reportedly collected from the forests of Indonesia.

After over a century of not seeing the rare creature, an independent wildlife biologist bird survey in the mountainous region surrounding Lake Toba in Indonesia’s North Sumatra found one sleeping, and decided to study it based on the descriptions originally noted by Modigliani so many years ago.

The reptile belongs to the Agamidae family of lizards, which are commonly called "dragon lizards," and include species such as bearded dragons. Researchers say there are 30 lizard species that have never been seen since they were first described, and 19 species which are known from just a single specimen.

Hummingbird Vision May See Outside the Normal Spectrum
Compared to many animals in the Animal Kingdom, humans are relatively colorblind. Whereas humans possess three kinds of color-sensitive cones -- eye cells sensitive to red, green and blue light -- birds have a fourth cone type sensitive to ultraviolet light.

Researchers built LED tubes that could display a wide range of colors, including combinations involving ultraviolet light on wild broad-tailed hummingbirds in an alpine meadow in Gothic, Colorado. For 3 years, they set up food and water stations, placing an LED tube beside each feeder so the hummingbirds could learn to visit rewarding colors.

After analyzing the results of the experiment, the researchers suggested birds are likely able to perceive not only the ultraviolet rays invisible to humans, but also many more unique colors that we may never see. 


NorCal STEM Education Foundation | www.sacSTEMfair.org