Howard County Students Excel in MESA State Competition
May 31st, 2024
![](https://news.hcpss.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024_State_MESA_ComC-H-1st-Mt_Hebron1.jpg)
Several Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) schools took home top honors at the Maryland State Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) Day competitions held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in May. More than 40 students from seven HCPSS schools took part in the competition, which brought 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.)
![](https://news.hcpss.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024_State_MESA_PlanL-H-1st-Atholton1.jpg)
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.
Grade Level | School | Competition | Honor |
---|---|---|---|
Elementary Schools | Longfellow | Community Cleanup Challenge | Second Place |
Longfellow | Wearable Tech | Second Place | |
Middle Schools | Patapsco | Community Cleanup Challenge | First Place |
Patapsco | National Engineering Design Challenge (NEDC) | Third Place | |
Thomas Viaduct | Planetary Lander Challenge | Third Place | |
High Schools | Atholton | Planetary Lander Challenge | First Place |
Mt. Hebron | Community Cleanup Challenge | First Place | |
Atholton | National Engineering Design Challenge (NEDC) | Second Place |
To qualify for the state-level competition, schools had to place first at the Regional MESA Day, which was held in April. More than 500 students in grades 4 -12 from 20 HCPSS schools (elementary, middle and high) participated in the regional event.
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.