Howard County Students Take Home Top Honors in 2025 State MESA Competition

May 28th, 2025

Several Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) schools took home top honors at the Maryland State Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Day competition held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in May. The competition brings together students from eight Maryland school districts and some private schools.

HCPSS students participated in several different science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM) challenges during the state competition,
including:

• Planetary Lander Challenge – Design and build a structure that allows astronauts to land successfully on the surface of another world.
• Community Cleanup – Create a trash-collecting device to help clean up your community.
• Wearable Technology Challenge – Design a respiration monitoring device for a breathing prosthetic infant.
• Storybook Theme Park Ride – Design and construct a Theme Park Ride based on a book of the student’s choosing. (Elementary students only.)
• National Engineering Design Challenge – Design a device using multiple technologies to solve a problem that minimizes or eliminates barriers to opportunities for success. (Middle and high school students only.)

Participating students prepared a variety of projects, including demonstration videos, posters, and design documents in response to these challenges. A group of judges, composed largely of community members, reviewed and scored the projects.

Elementary

• Stevens Forest, 3rd Place, Storybook Theme Park
• Deep Run, 3rd Place, Community Cleanup
• Elkridge, 2nd Place, Planetary Lander Challenge

Middle

• Patapsco, 3rd Place, National Engineering Design Challenge
• Patapsco, 3rd Place, Community Cleanup
• Patapsco, 1st Place, Wearable Tech
• Patapsco, 2nd Place, Planetary Lander Challenge

High

• Reservoir, 1st Place, National Engineering Design Challenge
• Atholton, 1st Place, Community Cleanup
• Oakland Mills, 2nd Place, Wearable Tech
• Atholton, 2nd Place, Planetary Lander Challenge

To qualify for the state-level competition, schools had to place first at the Regional MESA Day, which was held in April.

Maryland MESA is a STEM initiative for students in grades 3-12 and designed to spark their interest in STEM education and STEM careers. MESA is a structured, afterschool, pre-college program that prepares students for academic and professional careers in mathematics, engineering, science, and technology and is offered in partnership with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Maryland MESA Program.