Like many Howard County students, Alyssa Anwar, Kendall Davis, Jeanine Flanigan and Jesse Ketchum, are scheduled to leave town Thursday, June 23. After all, it's the first day of summer vacation.
But for these four eighth-graders from Cradlerock Upper School, in Columbia, their trip to Seattle to participate in the Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement Nationals Competition is an opportunity to continue their education and show off their smarts for the entire country.
Anwar, 14, Davis, 14, Flanigan, 13 and Ketchum, 14, were winners in the wind energy competition at the regional and state MESA levels for their windmill design, and will be in Seattle until Sunday, June 26, competing with 54 other MESA delegates.
"It was my wildest dream to get this far," said Shawn Gatz, MESA coordinator and sixth and seventh grade science teacher at Cradlerock. "We're honored to go to nationals. At Cradlerock, in the past we've had a really strong MESA team, and I'm so happy to see that come back."
This is the first year back for Cradlerock's MESA program, after a one-year hiatus. MESA is a K-12 science, technology, engineering and math initiative designed to encourage students to pursue careers in those fields. Middle-schoolers in the after-school program design and construct different projects, from computer programs to windmills and bridges.
Cradlerock's MESA team placed second in nationals in Denver in 2009 for its trebuchet model, but because of conflicting schedules among the faculty, the program was left without an adviser during the 2009-2010 school year.
But this year, Gatz was able to take the helm, overseeing 33 MESA students. Students welcomed the return, like Ketchum, who was a part of the program when he was in the sixth grade, he said. He and Anwar said they could become engineers, while Davis wants to be a doctor, and Flanigan wants to go into business.
This is not Ketchum's first time going to Seattle, but is for the others.
Flanigan is excited to see the Space Needle, and Davis is looking forward to traveling to the west coast for the first time. Anwar is simply eagerly anticipating the trip.
"The plane ride sounds exciting," she said.
Once in Seattle, the students and their windmill will compete in five different categories: the lifting capabilities of their windmill, the pulling capabilities of their windmill, the windmill's efficiency, their oral presentation and academic display and a previously submitted 15-page research paper.
"I think we have a really good shot at taking home the efficiency prize," Gatz said.
The efficiency prize is given to the lightest windmill that can handle the most weight, Gatz said, and the students' design — a light contraption made of craft plywood, thick posterboard, pennies and a Styrofoam cone — can pull 30 pounds and lift 1,100 grams.
To prepare for the competition, Anwar, Flanigan, Davis and Ketchum went through three base designs, four gear designs and five blade designs in a trial-and-error process to design a perfect windmill, which was all done under the supervision, but not direct guidance, of Gatz.
"You have to lead them along in the right direction, without giving the answers away," Gatz said. "It's about helping them discover it for themselves."
It was a daunting task at first.
"We just stared at the packet of information for the first two days, then we got to the pinwheels," Ketchum said.
Just five short months ago, that's all their design was: pinwheels made of construction paper.
"(The process) taught us a lot about what would work best," Flanigan said.
That's the entire point of the program, Gatz said.
"They might not receive this kind of exposure to science and engineering until high school or college," he said. "This gives students a chance to do hands-on engineering."