10.17.09
STEMapalooza Draws Large Crowds! Several St. Vrain MESA programs including Erie Middle and Westview Middle enjoyed the annual STEMapalooza event held at the Denver Convention Center. STEMapalooza, presented by University of Colorado Denver was held on Oct. 16 and 17 and celebrated STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and partnerships. The event was an ideal venue for educators and businesses to network and share the latest information about the sciences. Colorado MESA sponsored a booth that provided visitors an opportunity to engage in hands-on, "minds-on" activities similar to those done during MESA sessions.
9.19.09
Frederick High MESA Featured in 7th Annual Miner's Memorial Day Celebration!
With some welding modifications made last week by local superheroes Ken Jones and Don Evezich, the MESA electric car (built by MESA students last year) proudly traveled the entire route of the 7th Annual Miner's Day Parade! The MESA FIRST Tech Challenge Team also marched in the parade.
August 2009
2008-2009 MESA Program Summary
St. Vrain MESA celebrated and outstanding 2008-2009 school year. Partnerships were increased, students and programs received numerous awards, and participation in MESA programs increased dramatically.
August 2009
Don Haddad, Superintendent St. Vrain Valley School District, Expresses Support for MESA!
MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement) is an outstanding instructional program that does an excellent job of preparing students for a 21st century career in mathematics, engineering, science, and technology. While this program is available to all children throughout the St. Vrain Valley School District, it has been especially successful in supporting and preparing underrepresented elementary, middle, and high school students. Characterized by a hands-on, inquiry based, project focused curriculum, MESA has encouraged, motivated, and inspired numerous students to greater levels of achievement and success. Truly, this is a tremendous program that will continue to enhance the quality of education and serve to close the achievement gap that currently exists.
As the St. Vrain Valley School District continues to cultivate an educational environment conducive to higher levels of achievement, and further develops science, technology, engineering, and math focus programs, MESA will be critical in providing a strong foundation for students.
12.6.08
Casa MESA Students Visit the Integrated Teaching and Learning Lab Design Expo
MESA students from Casa de la Esperanza were among hundreds who visited ITLL's Design Expo. The ITL Design Expo is held twice a year, at the end of the fall and spring semesters. The event takes place at the Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory on the CU-Boulder campus. Student groups from all engineering majors are invited to display their projects for judges, fellow students and the public.
12.4.08
Tour of LASP Great Experience for Lyons Middle MESA
As part of their "Mission to Mars" project, Lyons Middle School MESA students toured the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. Their tour was led by Dr. Nick Schneider, one of three LASP scientists selected to head the instrument team for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) Mission. For more information visit MAVEN Mission.
12.1.08
IBM's Partners In Education Program Benefits Skyline MESA
As Skyline High prepares to become a STEM and Visual Arts Magnet School, MESA continues to lead the way in STEM education. MESA advisor, Richard Guenther, leads six sections of MESA Intro to Computer while Scott Duckworth's elective MESA robotics class features the VEX robotics system. José Quezada is busy with an after school MESA program. His students are planning on improving their electric vehicle's design and will be ready for the Electric Vehicle Competition to be held in May of 2009. Skyline MESA benefited from IBM's Partners in Education Program by receiving laptops and financial support.
11.15.08
Casa MESA Competes in FIRST LEGO League Competition: Building a Global Game Plan
For the second year, Casa MESA participated in the FIRST LEGO League competition. MESA mentors, Daniel Thompson, Wayne Bauer, Stephanie and Justin Dunn, guided students as they embarked on an exploration of the earth's climate in the FIRST LEGO League's 2008 Climate Connections Challenge. They discovered the links between science, people, resources and communities and explored how scientists learn about past climates. They delved into questions surrounding our current and future climatic conditions.
12.10.08
Dr. Amadei Receives Thirteenth International Human Rights Award
The United Nations Association - USA Boulder County Chapter recently awarded Dr. Bernard Amadei, Founder of Engineers Without Borders and Engineers Without Borders USA, the Thirteenth International Human Rights Award.
11.06.2008
Helen Douglass, Centennial Elementary MESA teacher, is thrilled to report that Centennial MESA was awarded a grant from The Community Foundation Littler Youth Fund. The grant will be used toward Thorne Ecological Institute's Project BEAR (Building Environmental Awareness and Respect) programs for K-5 students including three new classes on Wind Energy, Solar Energy and Climate Change. The Community Foundation Littler Youth Fund is used for the benefit of the youth of Weld County. It supports projects of service to the youth of the community, youth related pilot projects or seed money to enable projects to demonstrate their potential, and emergency funding for youth needs. All K-5 students from Centennial Elementary will benefit from this grant and send their thanks to The Community Foundation Littler Youth Fund.
10.11.2008
MESA Leaders Receive Honors from the Boulder County Community Action Program
Three of the nine honorees of this year's Boulder County Community Action Program are involved with MESA at Casa de la Esperanza. Karen Hunter, Eduardo Araujo Pradere and Michael Lozano Roman were all nominated by Carlota Loya Hernandéz, Casa's Resident Program Director, for their work with MESA programs at Casa.
8.5.08
St. Vrain MESA Program Summary
The 2007-08 year has ended and you'll be amazed at St. Vrain's results...
08.05.08
Casa MESA Students Visit Google's Boulder Office
MESA students from Casa were among participants at Discover Engineering Day at Google's Boulder office location. Part field trip, part career day, this day was designed to introduce students to the possibilities of a career in engineering and technology. Students toured Google's unique office, had lunch in the café with Googlers, participated in workshops that explained the engineering behind some of Google's products, and met Google engineers".
2.25.08
St. Vrain MESA Program Reports
This has been and exciting and busy year for St. Vrain MESA! Click and find out the details.
MESA's unique mission is to encourage, motivate, support and prepare students for success in the pursuit of undergraduate degrees and careers in mathematics, engineering, science and technology. MESA serves all students but has a particular interest and focus on students from groups that are historically underrepresented in science, engineering, and other math based careers. MESA students in elementary, middle and high schools prepare for and explore these professions through collaborative projects focused on building math, science, technology and communication skills.
La misión principál de MESA es animar, motivar, apoyar y preparar estudiantes para el éxito en la búsqueda de titulos universitarios y vocación en matemáticas, ingenieria, ciencias y tecnologia. MESA sirve a todos los estudiantes pero tiene un interés particular y se enfoca en estudiantes de grupos que son históricamente poco representados en ciencias, ingenieria y otras bases vocacionales de las matemáticas. Los estudiantes de MESA en escuelas primarias, intermedias y secundarias se preparan para explorar esas profesiones a travéz de proyectos colaboradores enfocados en construir matemática cientifica, technologiá y capacidad de comunicación.
Mark your calendars for the April 27th St. Vrain MESA Expo at Heritage Middle School from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. MESA students will highlight their projects and recognize community members, corporations, and university partners. Lisa Brown, NASA Outreach Specialist, will bring hands-on activities from NASA!
Under the guidance of MESA advisor, Steve Davis, Sunset Middle MESA students are participating in a project in collaboration with the Space Science Institute (SSI) of Boulder to create a national exhibition on asteroids, comet, and other near Earth objects. The National Science Foundation provided the grant for the exhibition, which will travel to science museums. The Sunset MESA team is one of three “student advisor teams” (the other two are in Albuquerque, NM and Hickory, NC) who are helping to design, test, evaluate and launch the exhibit project which is scheduled to begin its run in late 2011.
MESA student, Eric Heichelheim, a junior at Silver Creek High, used his expertise and Google SketchUp to help his team design a boat to compete in Colorado MESA's Fall Fling Boat Building Competition. Eric's design went through multiple modifications based on his experimentations with SketchUp and feedback from his teammates. The team's final design did stay afloat contrary to opinions of boating experts!
Podcasts and blogs were exhibited and enthusiastically explained by Emma Hall and Theo Ditillo at the St. Vrain Valley School District Technology Fair, held February 6, 2010. Explained so well, in fact, that the Eagle Crest MESA Garden Projects won 3rd place at the fair, earning $100 for their garden!
With support from a Colorado Division of Wildlife grant, St. Vrain Valley Education Foundation Mini-Grant, the Eagle Crest PTO, and the GLOBE Program, Eagle Crest MESA students celebrated "Leave No Child Inside Day" with a garden groundbreaking ceremony. Sixty-three learners cleared a 20-by-20-foot plot formally known as the "Get off the Rocks for the Rest of Your Life" area to make room for our Square Foot Garden plots.
MESA Advisors Stephanie Potter and Mick Huiet organized a special GLOBE Project training for teachers at Eagle Crest. GLOBE will be used in conjunction with their MESA Garden Project and to enhance the District's elementary science Earth Science FOSS unit. Deanna TeBockhorst, CloudSat Education Network, and Gary Randoph, Educational Designer The GLOBE Program, expertly facilitated the training.
Photographer Linda King from the Longmont Ledger, a new newspaper that will available soon, snapped photos of MESA students from Heritage Middle's MESA Environmental Program as they took on a back-breaking project at Walker Ranch, a Boulder County Parks and Open Space site located in the mountains west of Boulder. With guidance from BCPOS Rangers, Amanda Hatfield and Kevin Grady, they built wildlife-friendly fences to protect the nesting sites of prairie hawks and golden eagles. Janet Benter, their MESA advisor, said that this was by far the hardest labor that they've done so far. They hefted 17 foot long logs and used nails up to five feet long to construct seven sections of fence that were four logs tall! Janet proudly proclaimed that there was "no whining" at all.
MESA students at Skyline High and their advisor, Richard Guenther, are busy deciding the best way to "re-purpose" gently or not so gently used electronics. Students dubbed the project "Old Green Machines" because it focuses on the re-use and recycling of electronic components from devices otherwise headed for the landfill. The project has partnered with local thrift stores, including HospiceCare of Boulder, and the Humane Societies of Longmont and Boulder.
Spangler was recently awarded the 2008-2009 Outstanding Program of the Year by Colorado MESA at the 2009 MESA Annual Retreat and Kick-off.
Read More to find out why they received this prestigious award
Santiago Arredondo and Esteban Gonzales, from Casa de la Esperanza MESA, were introduced to the rigors of real scientific research this summer. They climbed ladders to place their data collection devices in trees on Niwot Ridge and fought bigger than life mosquitoes during the process. They were mentored by NCAR/UCAR scientist, Lynette Laffea. During internship program, NCAR scientists learned that high school students are more than capable of contributing to scientific research. The results of the pilot program on the effectiveness of using high school students as interns will be presented at the National Meteorological Society's upcoming convention.
MESA students at Spangler Elementary shared their Square Foot Gardens "salsa" with guests from LiveWell Colorado after harvesting the ingredients from their garden.
This past June, St. Vrain Valley School District had four Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) advisors attend a K-5 Earth Science Leadership Academy at Exxon Mobile in Houston, Texas. The four advisors, Helen Douglass (Centennial Elementary), Nina Amabile (Spangler Elementary), Emily Schmidt (Columbine Elementary), and Jayme Margolin (Westview Middle), were chosen part of a select few in the nation to attend this academy. This weeklong program involved learning more about the Earth Sciences, as well as learning and participating in perfecting Earth Science labs and activities for the classroom.
An unsuspecting Helen Douglass, Centennial Elementary MESA Teacher and Science Coach, was overwhelmed with surprise when Amgen representatives, Jessica Graziano, Diana Sherman-Palmer, and Ed Fitzgerald appeared at Centennial to present her with the prestigious Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence. Helen was one of four Colorado teachers selected from a pool of 60 candidates to receive the award. Helen's parents, Nadine and George Douglass, Centennial staff and students, School Board members, and District administrators were among the crowd that cheered as she accepted the award. Centennial Elementary is the first school in the country to be called "A Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) School.
On Saturday, February 14, 2009 Frederick High School's Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) after-school program accomplished an amazing feat! They won the Western Regional FIRST Tech Challenge. As a result, seven Frederick High MESA students and their advisor, Julie Constantine, will be on their way to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge at the US FIRST World Championship! The Frederick High MESA team will compete against teams from eight other countries including Canada, Mexico, Chili, Brazil, India, Norway, Holland, and Singapore at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, April 16-18, 2009.
On November 22, MESA advisor Janet Benter and MESA Environmental Club students enjoyed a peaceful afternoon at Rabbit Mountain collecting seeds of Winterfat, a sub-shrub that is a superior winter browse for wildlife such as deer, elk, rodents, rabbits and bighorn sheep. The seeds collected will be replanted in January at a nearby reclamation area. This project is significant because, when purchased, this seed costs about $45 per LPS (live pound of seed, or about three pounds of collected seed). Matt Bruce, Boulder County Parks and Open Space, said that he was very impressed with MESA students' work ethic, behavior, and great attitudes.
