News - Seneca Elementary wins regional MESA championship

On March 17, Seneca Elementary School participated in the 2008 MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement) Day Regional Competition held at Oregon Ridge Park. Competing against other Baltimore County elementary schools in five challenges, Seneca placed first or second in each one. The Seneca team took first place in the storybook theme park ride, balsawood bridge, and on-site slope/rate of change competitions, and the team received second place in the effective communications and banner competitions.

As the overall winners, Seneca Elementary was awarded the 2008 Baltimore County Regional Championship for Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement.
Maryland MESA, established in 1976, is a structured kindergarten through grade12 program designed to prepare students for academic and professional careers in mathematics, engineering, science, and technology. Seneca Elementary has participated in the MESA program for the past three years.

Throughout the 2007-2008 school year, 33 fourth- and fifth-grade students attended weekly meetings led by co-advisors Jordan Bach, a fifth-grade teacher, and Gretchen Frey, a third-grade teacher, to prepare for this year’s regional competition. Students participating in the competition groups also attended Tuesday and Saturday meetings as the competition grew closer.

“We are so proud of the accomplishments of these students,” says Seneca Elementary School Principal Charlene Behnke. “They deserve positive recognition for their achievement but even more for their dedication and hard work. The entire school community supports their continued success and thanks them for bringing attention to our wonderful school.”

The theme for this year’s MESA Day was “Maryland MESA: Launching Careers in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science.” In the effective communications competition, students delivered an oral presentation based on this year’s theme. For the banner competition, students created an animated banner, also based on the theme, using the Scratch! software program. In the storybook theme park ride competition, students designed and constructed a theme park ride based on the chapter book, “How to Eat Fried Worms,” by Thomas Rockwell. The roller coaster ride they created incorporated the four simple machines -- inclined plane, fulcrum and lever, pulley, and wheel and axle – to demonstrate their knowledge of the related scientific principles. For the balsawood bridge competition, students showed their understanding of strength and stability through their design and construction of a balsawood bridge. At the Regional Competition, the bridge created by Seneca’s team was tested to failure and held a total weight of 33.88 pounds. In the on-site slope/rate of change competition, students were given 10 minutes to analyze and interpret a line graph and then write a creative story based on the data presented in the graph.

Last year, Seneca Elementary won the 2007 MESA Day Regional Competition for Baltimore County. The team then headed to the 2007 MESA Day State Competition, held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, where it competed against other regional competition winners and was awarded the State Championship.
On May 15, 2008, Seneca Elementary will be heading to the 2008 MESA Day State Competition at the Howard County Fairgrounds to defend its title.

Story and photograph by Jordan Bach, fifth-grade teacher, and Gretchen Frey, third-grade teacher, Seneca Elementary school.

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