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MESA competitions enforce STEM initiative
Nothern High to progress to finals
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by DARWIN WEIGEL
Barstow Elementary School fourth-graders Perry Bradford, 10, right, and Dominic Pasch, 10, watch as their school's balsa wood bridge shatters under the weight of 8,400 grams last week at the MESA competition at Huntingtown High School.
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Calvert students put on their critical thinking caps last week for the Math, Engineering, Science Achievement, or MESA, competitions held on Wednesday for elementary schools and Thursday for middle and high schools.
The competition, now in its ninth year in Calvert County, was held at Huntingtown High School and the themes were "Going Green" and "Emerging Technologies."
"In Maryland [MESA] is an after school program run out of many counties," said Matt Smith, who is co-coordinator of the MESA program as well as a teacher at Southern Middle School in Lusby.
He explained that it is sponsored by a grant from Johns Hopkins University and that even though "it is an integral part of the STEM [science, technology, engineering, math] program, it is not funded by STEM.
"The whole idea of the program is to get kids excited about math engineering and science," said Smith, who continued that the MESA achieves this task with "high interest, exploratory based events."
Laveeta Hutchins, who is supervisor of special programs for Calvert County public schools, spearheaded the competitions and explained that the difference between the elementary, middle and high school challenges relates to "the complexity of the projects."
She said that despite the rising difficulty levels that the older students face, many of them already know what to expect.
"Some of them have been in MESA since elementary school so they know what the expectations are, so they have been able to refine their projects based on experience and maturity," Hutchins said.
One elementary school student who is already planning to be involved with MESA for the long haul is Dowell Elementary fifth-grader Julie Williams, whose team acted out a play on hybrid vehicles.
"I thought MESA would be good for me because I love solving problems … I thought it would be good to put on my college degree because I want to be an astronaut really bad," Julie, 11, said.
Ten-year-old Ryan Briggs, who attends Windy Hill Elementary School, helped to create a theme park ride based on the story "How to Eat Fried Worms" by Thomas Rockwell, and said he thought his team did really well.
"I like building things and working with my mind to solve problems," said Ryan, who was participating in MESA for his second consecutive year.
St. Leonard Elementary ultimately won the elementary school grand prize.
Calvert Middle School seventh-grader Sal Grasso, 12, enjoyed building a windmill for his team's challenge and said, "It was kind of cool watching something come up."
Southern Middle School ultimately took top honors in the middle school category and seventh-grader Elizabeth McClellan said this achievement was the best part of the competition for her.
"I don't really like science but I like technology and math and we got to make a power point so that was fun," she said.
Northern High School received the grand prize and will be competing in the state finals at Morgan State University in Baltimore on April 30. Northern team captain Terrell Long, 17, said this will be good practice for him as he plans to attend Morgan this fall as a computer engineering major. He said he has participated in MESA since he was in fourth grade and that he particularly enjoys "the atmosphere and the spirit of the competition."
"I'm really relieved now, I was a little nervous at the beginning," Long said after receiving his trophy.
Hutchins, however, told the students at the awards ceremony that winning should not be a major concern in this competition.
"Just think about coming back next year and working even harder," she said.
Assistant Superintendent of Administration Jeff Walker gave closing remarks and agreed that all teams deserve accolades for their hard work.
"I've judged MESA competitions for several years now and I'm very aware of the time and effort you all have made to get to this point," he said.
Elementary school winners
Scratch banner:
First place: Windy Hill
Second place: St. Leonard
Third place: Beach
Effective communications:
First place: St. Leonard
Second place: Huntingtown
Third place: Mutual
Balsa wood bridge:
First place: Mutual
Second place: Huntingtown
Third place: Appeal
Math Slope and Range:
First place: Plum Point
Second place: Sunderland
Third place: Mutual
Story Book Ride:
First place: Sunderland
Second place: St. Leonard
Third place: Huntingtown
Overall winner:
St. Leonard Elementary
Middle school winners
Effective communications:
First place: Southern
Second place: Northern
Third place: Calvert
Trebuchet:
First place: Northern
Second place: Leonardtown
Third place: Southern
Basswood:
First place: Mill Creek
Second place: Southern
Third place: Northern
Math slope and range:
First place: Leonardtown
Second place: Southern
Third place: Northern
Scratch banner:
First place: Windy Hill
Second place: Southern
Third place: Calvert
Overall winner:
Southern Middle
High school winners
Effective communications:
First place: Huntingtown
Second place: Patuxent
Third place: Northern
Basswood bridge:
First place: Northern
Second place: Calvert
Third place: Huntingtown
Electric Cargo Plane:
First place: Northern
Second place: Calvert
Third place: Huntingtown
Trebuchet:
First place: Northern
Second place: Calvert
Overall winner
Northern High
