Young engineers take competition to new heights

In the name of science, nearly 200 high school students from the Front Range got their hands wet—and sticky—at the annual High School Science & Engineering Jamboree.

Sponsored by Colorado MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement), organizers worked with the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the Student Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers to stage competitions to build straw towers, a mousetrap catapult, model crane and a solar heater.

The highlight of the day—the traditional egg drop competition—was taken to new heights—literally.

The students built what they hoped would be break-proof containers housing two or more eggs wrapped in Styrofoam, bubble wrap, various gels or never-before-seen matter and watched as the Channel 4 helicopter dropped 70 bundles over the field east of the Tivoli.

Hustling to retrieve their containers, students worked with judges to tally the survivors—and the fatalities.

“Oh, gross,” and “Ew,” were often heard as ectoplasmic goo and sticky yellow yoke oozed from packages. Yet there were many successes as well. “To test them, I threw them 70 miles per hour against the wall,” explained a Pueblo East student boasting five intact eggs. “I’m not sure what I did right,” added another, with two intact eggs and three broken. “But obviously, it didn’t all go right.”

“The Jamboree teaches the value of teamwork and how to apply math and science to solve problems and challenges,” notes Gloria Nelson, director of Colorado MESA.

First, second and third place team members received gold, silver and bronze medallions.  Campus tours of the engineering labs included aeronautics, robotics, measurements and 3-D animation design facilities.  The winners are posted at the MESA Web site at http://www.cmesa.org/.

MESA is a nonprofit organization designed to support underrepresented, minority and female students pursuing careers in engineering, math and science.  The MESA pre-collegiate program emphasizes a rigorous set of academic standards and challenges students to meet them.