Chaparral MS team holds its national championship trophy.
06/22/2018 –
This week nine students, two teachers and a support delegation from New Mexico made the long flight across the Mississippi river to Philadelphia, PA for the annual MESA USA national championship. The competition, centered around Arduino STEM solutions, brought middle and high school students from all over the country to Temple University’s College of Engineering.
Chaparral Middle School won first place overall in the middle school division while nex+Gen Academy received third place overall in the high school division. Both groups submitted a project report before flying to Philly, presented an academic poster during a technical interview and demonstrated their product during a 10 minute pitch. New Mexico’s theme for the year was “water;” an important topic in the arid southwest. The middle school’s community drain awareness mechanism, “Cloggo” scored them the win, whereas the high schooler’s monitoring system “PEMS” works to determine soil moisture content for habitat restoration purposes.
The students rocked the competition and also got to enjoy a little of Philly, home of the Liberty Bell! Philly cheese-steaks… check, Philadelphia Museum of Art… check; additional highlights included: running up the “Rocky steps,” the beauty and delight of the Chinese Lantern Festival and an adventurous evening at the Blue Cross RiverRink SummerFest along the Delaware River waterfront!
Chaparral MS
1st Technical Interview, 1st Project Report, 2nd Project Pitch; 1st overall!
(listed alphabetically) Cassandra Alvarez, Ivanna Cervantes, Lidia Ortiz and Kevin Ramos
Teacher, Rina Viramontes
nexGen Academy
2nd Technical Interview, 2nd Project Pitch; 3rd overall!
(listed alphabetically) Hank Hidalgo, Dominic Romero, Callum Tobias, Angelo Zaina and captain Eric Martinez
Teacher, Laura White
