Rez and Ocean are in the MESA club at school. It stands for Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement. They do really cool math/science/engineering activities and then have a competition near the end of the year. This year Rez and Ocean were on the same team working of the windmill challenge. They had to design and build a windmill that would pull a car so far and lift some weight so high, plus create a display board about it and write up something about it. They had been working so hard to get ready for the competition. Their teacher had hurt her hand and had been out for a few weeks and so they were all behind leading up to the competition. The week before it, they were at the school every afternoon and the day before MESA day (the competition), Rez got sick. He was sick all afternoon, so he couldn't go the next day. Ocean and the rest of their team were at school the day before until 8pm and came home that night with still more to do before the competition the next day. They were gluing their display board together on the car ride over. Ocean wasn't sure he wanted to go without his brother, but we convinced him to go (his best friend was going too.)
And it all paid off. Ocean came home with 4 medals! Two gold first place and 2 bronze 3rd place. He even brought home Rez's 3 medals he had earned for their team events they had placed in. One was the windmill competition. They got first place for middle school and 3rd place out of the high school competition with that. They also took first place for their balsa wood glider and Ocean got 3rd in the Math Olympiad. I am so proud of them.
And it all paid off. Ocean came home with 4 medals! Two gold first place and 2 bronze 3rd place. He even brought home Rez's 3 medals he had earned for their team events they had placed in. One was the windmill competition. They got first place for middle school and 3rd place out of the high school competition with that. They also took first place for their balsa wood glider and Ocean got 3rd in the Math Olympiad. I am so proud of them.
They now get to take their windmill to the State MESA competition in a few weeks.
They have had a 4-5 days to write an expanded paper on their windmill. They are so burned out, staying at school Thursday and Friday afternoons and going in Saturday all morning to work on it. They came home from school on Monday, the due date for their paper, and told me that Rez had worked on the paper for 4 periods that day. Ocean had worked for lunch, one period and some after school. They also had the other members of their team and some other students helping.
Their paper is 17 pages long. Not bad for middle schoolers.
That was not all though. They had to stay after school on some of the other days too. They expanded their display board and had to prepare an oral presentation. They also had to fix some problems with their windmill. The kids in MESA club really came together, the team that had the best board before, helped them with their new board and the boy that had a better windmill design helped them incorporate his pulley idea into their windmill to make it even better. The kids that were good writers, helped with their paper. It is too bad that only their 4 team members could go because they had so much help from some of the other kids in their club.
Finally the day came. Trip was able to go with them to the State competition. They had more problems with their windmill. Mostly it was that the table at the state competition was a different hight then the one they had used before and so when their windmill was lifting the weight it would hit the table. They tried to make it work by raising the windmill up higher, but then the fan that powered it was the wrong hight. Oh, well. There team did place 2nd for their display board and paper and 3rd for their oral presentation.
Here is team Moose Hippo, with their wonderful teacher in the middle and some other MESA people.
And how they looked for their oral presentation.
That was not all though. They had to stay after school on some of the other days too. They expanded their display board and had to prepare an oral presentation. They also had to fix some problems with their windmill. The kids in MESA club really came together, the team that had the best board before, helped them with their new board and the boy that had a better windmill design helped them incorporate his pulley idea into their windmill to make it even better. The kids that were good writers, helped with their paper. It is too bad that only their 4 team members could go because they had so much help from some of the other kids in their club.
Finally the day came. Trip was able to go with them to the State competition. They had more problems with their windmill. Mostly it was that the table at the state competition was a different hight then the one they had used before and so when their windmill was lifting the weight it would hit the table. They tried to make it work by raising the windmill up higher, but then the fan that powered it was the wrong hight. Oh, well. There team did place 2nd for their display board and paper and 3rd for their oral presentation.
Here is team Moose Hippo, with their wonderful teacher in the middle and some other MESA people.
Here is a close-up of their display board.
And how they looked for their oral presentation.
I am so proud of them for all their hard work and seeing it through.
(Ocean doesn't speak in public if he can help it, but he did! and did well.)
2 comments:
Congratulations! What a great project.
I am so impressed by all their hard work! It is one thing to be smart and another to be able to put things together and tell others about it! What great kids you have!!!
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