Spokane Students Score Big in National Engineering Competition

SPOKANE, Wash. — Middle and high school student teams from Spokane took honors in a national engineering design competition held in California on June 25. The teams were sponsored by the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement program, housed at Washington State University Spokane.

Salk Middle School students Kalah Pratt, Maria Hunt, Lydia Venzke and Jessi Miller placed second nationally in overall scoring for middle school students. DeAndra Kenoly and D.J. May from North Central High School and Jennifer McGlothen from Lewis and Clark High School made their second appearance in the competition and came in fourth nationally for high school students after placing second in the national competition last year.

The teams were among 16 junior and senior high school teams from eight states that created “Multi-Purpose Vehicles” (MPVs) powered by household mousetraps. MESA teachers, such as Salk Middle School’s Ben Morgan, incorporate activities like the multipurpose vehicle event into their regular classroom to challenge and engage their students.

Both teams earned the opportunity to represent the entire state at the national competition by competed in local competitions and then winning first place in their grade levels at the Washington MESA state competition on May 24.

Teams were evaluated for quality of technical papers, oral presentations, academic displays, and car performance. The middle school team finished first in technical paper and both vehicle performance categories at the event. The high school team finished third in five of six categories at the event. Student-designed vehicles were judged by representatives from SBC, Fluor, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Raytheon, and the U.S. Navy.

The competition is developed to test students’ command of physics and math principles as well as tap their creativity. The curriculum behind the competition is mapped to the appropriate grade level standards.

Washington MESA provides academic preparation for underrepresented students throughout the state to help them excel in math and science and go on to attend college in math-based majors. The goal of MESA is to provide globally competitive and individually competent students with full participation of underrepresented students, including African-Americans, Hispanics, American Indians and women. MESA USA is a partnership of MESA programs in Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

Spokane MESA programs serve about 350 students in grades 7-12 in Spokane Public Schools. Through the district partnership and partnership with classroom teachers, MESA provides curriculum enrichment and support to encourage students to excel in mathematics and science.

Web sites:
Spokane MESA: www.mesa.spokane.wsu.edu
Spokane MESA Students Advance to National Engineering Competition (May 31, 2005): https://wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=5260
High School Teams Converge for WSU Spokane MESA Competition (March 21, 2005): https://wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=5108
Spokane MESA High School team 2nd at Nationals (Aug. 5, 2004): https://www.spokane.wsu.edu/News&Events/bulletins/bulletin04/August5.asp