SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane area middle and high school students will have a new life perspective after facing the challenge of designing and operating a prosthetic arm.
Area middle and high school students are challenged academically each year during the Spokane MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) project and competition. This year students will compete in the first-ever Prosthetic Arm Challenge. Seventeen MESA student teams from Spokane will put their designs to the test from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, March 21 at the Gonzaga University campus in Cataldo Hall.
Teams will research, design, build, test, and compete using a prosthetic device designed to mimic the movement of the wrist, hand and fingers. Performance will be judged as it relates to the following tasks:
- Distance Accuracy Relay: greatest distance and accuracy achieved by tossing balls of three different sizes into target containers located at three different distances.
- Object Relocation Task: greatest mass-to-time ratio achieved by placing objects of varying weight into the specified container.
- Dexterity Task: greatest number of bolts and nuts correctly placed and secured onto the testing device.
- Design efficiency: greatest ratio of device performance to device mass.
Tasks 1, 2, and 4 will be completed by all teams. Only the high school teams will compete in the dexterity task.
All teams will also produce a technical paper, oral presentation, and academic display in support of their project. Their technical paper will detail their design process, experimentation with the device, and their understanding of the engineering concepts. Student teams will present their work and academic displays to a panel of STEM professionals from the Spokane area who will judge their presentation and challenge each team further with follow-up questions.
The competition is supported by MESA co-sponsors, Eastern Washington University and Washington State University Spokane, and program partner Gonzaga University. Each organization has a strong history of collaboration with MESA in the promotion of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education and careers.
About Spokane MESA
The goal of MESA is to provide globally competitive and individually competent students in Mathematics, Engineering and science with full participation of under-represented students, including African Americans, Latinos/as, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and females of all ethnicities. The Spokane MESA center is one of six in the state of Washington. It was founded in 1989 and serves approximately 600 students at 7th-12th grade levels. Spokane MESA is supported by both Washington State University Spokane and Eastern Washington University to maintain a high level of service to Spokane Public Schools.
Note to Editors:
To arrange interviews with student participants and faculty at the event, contact Joanna Moznette at 509-358-7966.
Visual Opportunities:
Both the competition and presentations include visuals and audience interaction, and following the competitive event, students will experience a number of engineering activities provided by Gonzaga University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science. Faculty and graduate students will loop the students through a series of labs where they can create white water rapids, test pH levels in different liquids, operate the power in the wind tunnel, and learn how a jet engine works from the inside out.
Relevant Links:
Spokane MESA: http://www.spokane.wsu.edu/researchoutreach/MESA/
Gonzaga University Campus Map: http://www.gonzaga.edu/About/campus-map.asp
Contact:
Joanna Moznette, Spokane MESA Center, 509-358-7966, moznette@wsu.edu;
Becki Meehan, WSU Spokane/WSU News Service, 509-358-7528, rmeehan@wsu.edu