About 200 middle school students competed at the Central Union High School swimming pool during the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement program’s “Walking on Water” competition.

Twenty-seven schools throughout the Imperial Valley entered the competition that required, in addition to two months of preparation, a keen focus on how math and science mesh in engineering, said Jeanette Espino, MESA program director.

While the would-be inventors got to bask in the sun and splash in the water, Espino said the competition also serves as a useful instructional tool. More than 200 high school students will get to do the same at 5:15 p.m. today during their MESA competition at CUHS’ swimming pool.

Teams consisting of MESA students at San Diego State University, San Diego City College, Southwestern Community College, Imperial Valley High School, and Holtville High School competed against each other in exams that spanned Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and some Engineering material.

Each campus was also allowed up to 3 teams who would program a LEGO MindStorm NXT robotics kit to compete in 2 missions. The first mission required speed and intelligence to maneuver from a home area through a slalom course. The second mission was a combination control and head-to-head event where robots raced to collect the most LEGO pieces and return them back to their home base under a constrained area and time limit.

Caltrans, via their headquarters and traffic management center shared with CHP, provided ‘in-house’ training; students learned technical skill sets and gained professional development to enhance their professional development and further their employment opportunities.

Competition for all MESA programs segments in problem-solving sessions and/or robotics competition designed to promote teamwork, engineering and problem solving skill development.

The OLYMPICS competition has teams of 4 students solve technical problems in mathematics, chemistry, physics and engineering. The competition is broken down in 3 academic levels.

The ROBOTICS competition uses the LEGO Mind storm NXT 2.0 robotics kits for teams of 4 students to build robots to complete 2 challenges-an obstacle course, and a head-to-head competition. The exact nature of the obstacle course and battle will be distributed with the Robotics kits after teams are formulated beginning March 23rd.

The Mock Interview, and Resume and Cover Letter Critique took place on Friday, February 4, 2011 from 1:00 – 4:00 pm at San Diego State University Career Services (Student Services East Building, Room 1200)

The event had limited reserved seating for MESA/NSF/MEP/MSP students only. Northrop Grumman representatives hosted a presentation on “The Art of Interviewing” from 1:00 – 1:45 pm whilst students had the opportunity to participate in 30 minute one-on-one Mock Interviews and Resume/Cover Letter Critiques between 2:00 – 4:00 pm.

Representatives from the different student clubs, universities and the science/engineering industries will be on hand to talk to students about enrichment programs, job opportunities, research and development, summer internships and exciting careers in science/engineering. We will also have popcorn and music!

Participation is free of charge! Please contact me to reserve tables and request parking permits. Thank you for your support!

The Educational Policy Institute is looking for creative high school or postsecondary students to develop short videos for use at our Retention 2011 Conference in San Diego, CA, and to post on our two websites, educationalpolicy.org and studentretention.org.

The San Diego State University’s MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) Schools Program will host its annual MESA Day Preliminaries on Saturday, Feb. 26, throughout the SDSU campus.

The 10th Annual Leadership Summit took place at the Indian Hills Camp in Jamul on the weekend of February 11 – February 13, 2011.

49 MESA/MESA Engineering Program (MEP)/Maximizing Science Potential (MSP) students from San Diego City College, San Diego State University, Southwestern College, Crawford High, Morse High, Lincoln High, Mark Twain High, San Pasqual High, Southwest High, and Calexico High Schools participated in various competitions that promoted the use of their leadership skills and various strengths attributes.

Another very special thanks goes to PBS&J for allowing the Leadership Summit to take place with its grant award to SDSU MEP. Without this grant award, the 2011 Leadership Summit would not have taken place.

Volunteer/Community Service Opportunity:
Pre-College students in the MESA Schools Program will be competing in the SDSU MESA Day Preliminaries with several projects, i.e. Windmill, Egg Drop, Popsicle Stick Bridges, Manila Folder Bridges, Mousetrap cars, and MUCH MORE, to determine who will represent the SDSU MSP at the MESA Day Regionals.