Rocky Mountain MESA

Mission

Rocky Mountain MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) is a statewide/regional organization for traditionally underserved and underrepresented students that provides tools, technologies, resources and collaborative partnerships with key higher education and industry professionals to optimize K-14 student preparation and success for leadership in tomorrow’s diverse STEM workforce.

By forming partnerships with businesses, school districts and academia, RM MESA strengthens K-14 education.

We are a chapter of a larger national organization, MESA USA. Since 1970 MESA has helped students become scientists, engineers and mathematicians, filling an urgent need for qualified technical professionals.

Vision for the Future

While combining the prowess of students of all ages with industry professionals to solve world problems, Rocky Mountain MESA helps K-14 students transcend traditional STEM outcomes and pathways to optimize successful leadership in industry, research and service to meet the global STEM workforce demands of tomorrow.

Our 2022-23 Teams

PROJECT TITLE: Fighting Hunger One Click at a Time

PROJECT GOAL: The Broomfield FISH App seeks to overcome the language inequities of the users of Broomfield FISH (Fellowship in Serving Humanity), our local food bank, to share shopping instructions with users along with breaking the barrier of communication by providing users with a calendar, donation information, and FISH’s high needs items.

According to the US Census Bureau, about 11.6 percent of the United States live below the poverty line. That is about 37.9 million people. Our project exists to help those with food scarcity or financial problems in our community. Created for those who are already tackling the problem, FISH, our app allows them to more-effectively serve the needs of their users. With our app’s launch, FISH has not only been able to improve communication, but also break the language barrier between themselves and users. Additionally, the app can be catered to both domestic and international food banks.

2nd Place, State Competition

Warren Tech Central High School

PROJECT TITLE: Bag Transport Tank

PROJECT GOAL: This project aims to remove inequity by helping disabled people and the elderly to be more independent. Our project does this by helping move their equipment without the need for outside help. Our main focus for this project is Robbie, a 6th grader, with a condition known as Kyphosis. This makes it extremely hard to move and function in everyday life. Kyphosis targets the spine and makes it difficult even to keep balance. Robbie is only 40 lbs and 37’ tall, he needs to have a medical bag with him that weighs up to 50 lbs, he is unable to move it himself. The BTT will aid Robbie and others by transporting heavy objects that would be almost impossible independently.

The main goal is being able to move Robbie’s bag up on mostly flat surfaces, this is the most important because it’s one of the only definite requirements from Robbie. The other main goal is to help Robbie with his movement, which we are doing by adding a rest bar and an alert mechanism so that people will see him when they are walking. We also have the goal of being able to use stairs which allows Robbie flexibility, for instance, if a place doesn’t have elevator access.

3rd Place, State Competition

Broomfield High School

PROJECT TITLE: B-Ready Recycling 

PROJECT GOAL: In our community, many do not have access to recycling or choose to neglect it. Our project’s goal is to counteract this by educating, helping, and bringing awareness to the need to recycle.

With our project, we plan to make it beneficial for everyone in our community. Still, our primary beneficiaries are those who lack access to recycling in their community, then secondarily those who choose not to recycle. Unreasonably recycling has been incredibly expensive for fellow families in Colorado. Meaning the logical idea of recycling had been more socially unaccepted. Our plan is to convey the Broomfield audience through our website to reject this previous idea. Having an educational website can be used as a resource to help educate the community on recycling.

Current Events

On-going – We are still actively recruiting graduate students and post-doc volunteers, from both Mines and NREL.  Contact Dr. Christian Beren, cberen@mines.edu, with your interest.

June 26, 2023 – Rocky Mountain MESA Triumphs in National Competition!

The Rocky Mountain MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement) (RM MESA) chapter has once again proven its mettle by emerging victorious in the exhilarating national engineering design competition (NEDC) held in the vibrant city of Albuquerque, New Mexico on June 24-26.

Comprising a group of talented and dedicated young minds, the Rocky Mountain MESA team from Broomfield High School, (Glori Erichson, Landon Wood, Ethan Dorman, Coleman Eschenbrenner) showcased their technical prowess, innovative thinking, and collaborative spirit, leaving a lasting impression on the judges and cementing their position as emerging contenders in the realm of engineering excellence.

Advising the team were teacher advisors Suzi Dykstra (not present) and Chris Keller, and Colorado School of Mines graduate student mentors Farai Mazhandu and Sami Siska (not present). Cynthia Howell is the Rocky Mountain MESA Director and Danielle Ladd is the Rules Committee and Teacher Advisor coordinator. Christian Beren is the graduate student mentor coordinator for RM MESA.

The Competition:

As an alliance of states, MESA USA provides leadership in equity and access for STEM, achieves programmatic excellence and ensures national program sustainability.

The highly anticipated MESA national engineering design competition (NEDC) brought together MESA chapters from across the country to Albuquerque, offering a platform for high school-age budding engineers to display their skills and passion for problem-solving.

The event encompassed a range of challenges, requiring participants to devise innovative solutions to real-world problems. The 2022-23 academic year theme was, “Designing for Equity in Your Community”. Teams were evaluated on the effectiveness of their design briefs, technical presentation and interview, the project report and project pitch. These categories looked at the application of engineering principles, and the overall creativity and execution of their projects.

The team from Broomfield won 1st Place overall, as well as 1st Place in the Technical Presentation and Interview, 1st Place in their Project Report and 3rd Place in their Project Pitch.

Against fierce competition, the Rocky Mountain MESA chapter outshone their rivals with an impressive display of technical ingenuity and teamwork. Their project, titled “Fighting Hunger One Click at a Time” (FISH) addresses the pressing issue of food insecurity and language inequities at the local level. With a holistic approach that encompassed both engineering and socioeconomic considerations, their design provided an innovative and sustainable solution to the challenge at hand. With the app’s launch, FISH has been able to improve communication and break the language barrier between foodbanks and their users. The app can be catered to both domestic and international food banks.

Teamwork and Mentorship:

Behind the Rocky Mountain MESA chapter’s triumph lies the exceptional collaboration and mentorship within all its teams.

At the RM MESA state competition held April 29, a team from Warren Tech Central High School won 2nd Place for their “Bag Transport Tank” and another team from Broomfield High School won 3rd for their “B-Ready Recycle” project.

Participating Colorado schools in the 2022-23 RM MESA include Arvada High School, Legacy High School, Broomfield High School, East High School, Warren Tech Central, Early College of Arvada, Golden High School, Arvada West, Arvada K-8, Grand Junction Middle and High school, Poudre High School, Arrupe Jesuit High School, North Arvada High School and Warren Tech North High School. New this year was Alameda International Middle- and High School

Our chapter has students from all over the state whose collective dedication and willingness to learn from graduate student mentors and teacher advisors play a big role in their success and the success of the program. Throughout the academic year the students work hard, and the teacher advisors and Mines grad student mentors provide crucial knowledge and guidance, empowering the young engineers to push their boundaries and think outside the box. This mentorship aspect of MESA not only hones technical skills but also stirs passion, fosters personal growth and professional development, and prepares participants for future engineering careers.

The Rocky Mountain MESA chapter’s victory in the engineering design competition is a testament to the dedication, technical expertise, and collaborative spirit of this one team. But along with their victory, the Rocky Mountain MESA’s entire chapter of students, teachers and grad student mentors continues to inspire and pave the way for future engineering marvels.

Read more about the competition and results event here.

Saturday, April 29, 2023 – A team from Broomfield High School won the statewide competition, held April 29, with their MESA USA Designing for Equity project, “Fighting Hunger One Click at a Time: Building an App to Serve Our Local Food Bank”.

The team had the highest combined scores in the four major categories of the competition: Design Brief, Poster Presentation, Technical Interview and Prototype Pitch. They will go on to represent Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region at the national MESA USA competition, June 26-29, in Albuquerque, NM.

Congratulations, Coleman, Ethan, Glori and Landon, our team from Broomfield High School. We are currently preparing to send them to the national competition for MESA USA. Congratulations to all of our teams for a memorable, wonderful State Competition and Jamboree event! 

2nd Place went to Warren Tech Central High School, Team Bag Transport Tank

3rd Place went to Broomfield High School, Team B-Ready Recycling 

Saturday, August 27, 2022 – Nexus teamed up with the CMI Education, Training and Outreach (ETO) team, NREL STEM education center, Colorado School of Mines’ Admissions team and the Mines Earth Sciences Museum on Saturday, August 27th in the CoorsTek building on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines, to deliver the Rocky Mountain Math Engineering Science Achievement (RM MESA) Fall Kick-Off Workshop for Colorado teachers and graduate student mentors.

Over 36 educators and Mines’ graduate student RM MESA volunteers spent their Saturday preparing for STEM outreach for the 2022-23 school year. See the Nexus Announcement Page for the full article.