July 5, 2006

Pueblo High's MESA design team takes 2nd


By Jeff Commings
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.29.2006

The Pueblo High Magnet School foursome that won the annual MESA USA National Engineering and Design Competition two years in a row has fallen just short of an unprecedented third-straight title.
The high-school team of Esther Blue, Darryl Davis-Rosas, Johnnie Gasper and Rosie Mankel placed second and competed for the final time at the weekend event. All four team members are going to either the University of Arizona or Arizona State University in the fall.
The team from Amphitheater Middle School placed sixth overall, citing a glitch with its mousetrap-powered vehicle, a crucial component of the California event. Roosevelt Middle School, from Compton, Calif., won the middle-school division.
The competition is for middle-school and high-school teams that are part of the Math, Engineering and Science Achievement programs in eight states. The program aims to improve math and science skills for primarily low-income and minority students.
Placing second this year was a great achievement for the high-school team, Blue said. Even better was spending time with the winning team from A.A. Stagg High School, of Stockton, Calif., and reflecting on four years of competition.
''We had the best possible time we could have had,'' Blue said. ''MESA has been about going to college, and we're all going to college.''
Blue said the team had the best scores on the research paper and the oral presentation.
The middle-school team ?— Lili Huang, Stephanie Quach, Johnathon Snyder and Zachary Young ?— did well on its research paper, but its vehicle, powered by a mousetrap's spring that turns the car's wheels, did not successfully complete the climb up a 30-degree incline, adviser Mary Grace Salamon said.
''Things like this happen,'' she said. ''The level of competition has gotten harder.''
She said many of the teams used PowerPoint presentations, which surprised the local teams. She said the middle-school team members, all of whom are attending Amphitheater High School in the fall, are looking forward to next year's competition.
That event will be the first in a three-year cycle featuring the design of the trebuchet, a catapult that works with weights instead of a hinge.
''They're really excited about the things they want to do,'' Salamon said.



By Jeff Commings