HCPSS Students Make Regional MESA Day Competition a Success

March 30th, 2017

Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) students excelled in the Maryland Mathematics Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) program’s regional MESA Day competitions on March 24 at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL) in Laurel.

The science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) competitions included nine events and 400 HCPSS students representing five elementary, four middle and five high schools. St. Johns Lane Elementary Schoolwas the overall elementary school winner. Lake Elkhorn Middle School was the overall winner at the middle school level, and Oakland Mills High School won at the high school level.

Patapsco Middle School and Atholton High School won the Prosthetic Arm competition at their respective levels. The overall winners at each level and the winners of the Prosthetic Arm Competition move on to represent Howard County at the Maryland Statewide MESA competition on May 18, 2017, also at JHU-APL. The Maryland winner of the Prosthetic Arm Challenge will be invited to compete for a chance to represent Maryland in the national event in Philadelphia in June.

For the regional competitions, students developed programs dealing with cyber security and interactive game design. They built bridges out of basswood and balsa wood under strict guidelines that tested the structural integrity of the bridges. Creative and innovative abilities of students were evaluated in events such as effective communications and the storybook theme park ride. Construction and racing of a hovercraft were part of this year’s events.

The public is invited to attend the statewide MESA Competition at JHU-APL on May 18, 2017. More information is available at the JHU-APL MESA website.