Thank You for Your Interest in Volunteering for our upcoming Competition Series!
Our competition series will take place over a 2 week period as follows with both in person, virtual, and advance volunteer opportunities.
- April 6: MESA Day Prepared Design (In Person-Albuquerque)
- April 7: High School MESA Day Artistic Invention (Virtual)
- Prepared Design Video Scores Due (Advance Role)
- April 8: Middle School MESA Day Artistic Invention (Virtual)
- April 11: MESA USA Poster and Brief Scores Due (Advance Role)
- April 12: MESA USA (In Person-Socorro)
Full event information can be found in the linked handbooks. Review the volunteer information for each event in the flyer below. Because this event is hybrid, there are multiple opportunities for volunteering…all with different time commitments. Some are in person roles the day of each event and some are advance roles in which you determine when you will review assigned materials within a given time frame. The flyers and registration details out each opportunity and the time commitment required. Please direct any questions to Anita Gonzales, anita@nmmesa.org, 505-718-9517
The NM MESA, Inc., Annual statewide competitions are designed to encourage the concept of problem solving through teamwork. It salutes NM MESA students for their commitment to academic excellence and reinforces the NM MESA mission of preparing students from historically underrepresented ethnic groups for college majors and careers in math, engineering and science.
COMPETITION OVERVIEW:
NM MESA schools are invited to participate in our MESA Day as follows: All of our events will address the topic of Celebrating Invention.
- On Site Science-Invention Station Quest (Virtual-No Judges Needed)
- On Site Math-New Mexico Math (Virtual-No Judges Needed)
- On Site Art Achievement-Artistic Invention (Virtual Judging Needed)
- On Site Engineering-Music and Machine Motion (Virtual-No Judges Needed)
- Prepared Design-IDEA Challenge, Solutions for Educators (In Person and Advance Judging)
and our MESA USA Competition as follows: For this project, student teams will identify an individual or group who experiences some type of inequity (i.e., a user). Teams will employ human-centered design practices to engineer a solution. Teams must use a coding component as the main component of their design. Teams must use the theme of Designing for Equity in Your Community.
- Design Brief (Advance Judging Volunteer Roles Available) – The objective of the Design Brief is to provide a brief, non-technical overview of the entire project.
- Technical Presentation and Interview (In Person Volunteer Roles Available)- The objective of the Technical Presentation and Interview is to provide an overview of the prototype functionality including a technical explanation of the mechanical operations, software operations, and integration of the two. Students will deliver a short presentation, which includes a demonstration of the functionality of the prototype, followed by a question and answer session with judges.
- Poster and Symposium (Advance Judging Volunteer Roles Available)- The objective of the Poster is to provide an overview of the project, highlight key points of the design process, discuss relevant testing and data collection, present the resulting prototype, and share recommendations for further development. Students will prepare an electronic academic poster.
- Prototype Pitch (In Person Volunteer Roles Available) – The objective of the Prototype Pitch is to convince the audience that the design meets the user’s needs and has value as a product to address an issue of inequity. Students will prepare a creative, engaging presentation to pitch their prototype to an audience, including a group of judges. The presentation should define the problem; should show how they address the theme of Designing for Equity in Your Community; provide a detailed description of the user and their needs; discuss current solutions to the problem and their weaknesses; and provide a demonstration of their prototype highlighting its advantages.
