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From left to right: Alex Chavez, Daniel Tellez, Angela Perez.
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Isbell students headed to MESA State Finals
May 20, 2015
By Brian D. Wilson
Santa Paula News
Three Isbell Middle School students are going to the University of the Pacific in Stockton Saturday for the State Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) National Engineering Challenge competition.
The three, Angela Perez, Alex Chavez and Daniel Tellez were required to build a prosthetic arm team EZ ADA. From left to right: Alex Chavez, Daniel Tellez, Angela Perez. arm, write an engineering technical paper, create a poster and give an oral presentation, as well as demonstrating that the arm functioned. The trio, all sixth grade students have already won two preliminary competitions at UC Santa Barbara.
They are representing UCSB, UC Santa Cruz and Cal State Fresno at the State finals. If they win Saturday they will go on to represent the State of California at the National Finals in Ogden, Utah in June.
The students have been working since last October on this project. The requirements are that the arm be able to pick up and move objects and have a minimum of two fingers. They are still making modifications to the arm in preparation for Saturday.
The Isbell MESA advisors are teachers Cari Leidig, Diana Georghiou, Kurt Wilkinson and Robert Leidig (special advisor).
Cari Leidig said, “I’m really pleased with their dedication. It takes a tremendous amount of time.” She noted that they’ve spent over 100 hours on the project since October. This is the fourth Isbell team to go on to the State Finals. The last team won the National competition in 2012.
MESA is nationally recognized for its innovative and effective academic development program that engages students to excel in math and science and pursue a degree in math, engineering, or other science-related field. UCSB is the supporting university for the MESA program at Isbell Middle School.
The MESA program was founded at Oakland Technical High School with 25 students. MESA is an academic preparation program that serves more than 21,000 California pre-college, community college and university students who are educationally disadvantaged.
Seventy-four percent of MESA high school students go to college after graduation compared to 41 percent of all California students. Sixty percent of MESA high school graduates go on to college as math, engineering or science majors.
