Tucson Region

Annual MESA Day a winner for youths from 2 local schools

More than 700 Arizona students converged upon the University of Arizona on Saturday for the 14th annual MESA Day statewide design competition that saw two local schools advance to national contests. Amphitheater Middle School and Pueblo High School - two of the 29 Tucson-area schools -earned spots in a national Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, or MESA, competition, where they will be the sole representatives for Arizona. MESA, a college-preparation program for middle- and high-school students, put on the event, which consisted of 10 design competitions: university poster design, multipurpose vehicle, balsa-wood bridge, technical briefing, science model groundwater, prepared windmill project, on-site engineering design, balsa-wood glider, reflecting telescope challenge and the cargo bottle rocket. Of those contests, only the multipurpose-vehicle event has a national competition. That's the event in which Amphitheater Middle and Pueblo High placed first in their divisions and will compete in the nationals. Students from the 40 schools had six months to come up with ideas for their designs and build them. Each school club met on a weekly basis to take part in college preparatory activities and to work on their MESA Day projects. "We don't tell them how to design their projects,"said Rafael Meza, a MESA program coordinator. "We only give them guidelines so that they can be creative." One project in particular was designed so well that it got all around campus. One of the cargo bottle rockets - which is made out of a 2-liter soda bottle that holds an egg, and must float in the air and land with the egg intact - was floated halfway across campus before landing, Meza said. Each school was allowed one design per event. All of the designs were judged on a point system by volunteers who were professionals in jobs related to the focus areas of MESA. "MESA Day is a great example of the community coming together to show students that college is possible whether it be at the UA or wherever," he said. This is not the first trip to nationals for the Pueblo students. They will be defending their national championship in Anaheim, Calif., in June against students from eight other states. The foursome of Johnnie Gasper, Rosie Mankel, Nathan Garcia and Esther Blue designed the winning multipurpose vehicle. Their project included the vehicle, a 15-page paper, an oral presentation and a display board. The team of 11th-graders, with the exception of Garcia, is the same group that won nationals in Albuquerque last year. "The competition was very tense," Gasper said. "I thought Peoria or Flowing Wells would win." And with good reason: Two Flowing Wells High School students took home four medals, three for first places and one for a third place. Eleventh-grader Sean Sandiford said he expected to win the four medals, but was hoping for more. "It was still pretty good though."