STEM Students Earn Top Honors At State Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement Contest

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Several Howard County Public School System schools took home top honors at the Maryland State Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement Day competition held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in May.

The competition brings together students from eight Maryland school districts and some private schools. HCPSS students participated in several different science, technology, engineering and mathematics challenges during the state competition, including:

• Planetary Lander Challenge – Design and build a structure that allows astronauts to land successfully on the surface of another world.
• Community Cleanup – Create a trash-collecting device to help clean up your community.
• Wearable Technology Challenge – Design a respiration monitoring device for a breathing prosthetic infant.
• Storybook Theme Park Ride – Design and construct a Theme Park Ride based on a book of the student’s choosing. (Elementary students only.)
• National Engineering Design Challenge – Design a device using multiple technologies to solve a problem that minimizes or eliminates barriers to opportunities for success. (Middle and high school students only.)

Participating students prepared a variety of projects, including demonstration videos, posters and design documents in response to these challenges. A group of judges, composed largely of community members, reviewed and scored the projects.

Elementary

• Stevens Forest, 3rd Place, Storybook Theme Park
• Deep Run, 3rd Place, Community Cleanup
• Elkridge, 2nd Place, Planetary Lander Challenge

Middle

• Patapsco, 3rd Place, National Engineering Design Challenge
• Patapsco, 3rd Place, Community Cleanup
• Patapsco, 1st Place, Wearable Tech
• Patapsco, 2nd Place, Planetary Lander Challenge

High

• Reservoir, 1st Place, National Engineering Design Challenge
• Oakland Mills, 2nd Place, Wearable Tech
• Atholton, 2nd Place, Planetary Lander Challenge

To qualify for the state-level competition, schools had to place first at Regional MESA Day, which was held in April.