MESA Design Challenge Specifications
MESA Day is our annual statewide competition. Middle and high schools enrolled in MESA will bring teams to present their design in response to the following engineering design challenges. Individual awards are presented to teams that place first through sixth place in each of the design challenges and trophies are presented to the schools that place first through third overall.
MESA Day is a celebration of STEM, and in addition to bringing students together to present their projects and compete ,there are various STEM activities from our industry, non-profit, and higher education partners for student engagement and continued learning.
To ensure a positive experience for everyone our director has drafted the following message about Student Expectations and Mediation Process for MESA Day.
For this project, student teams will identify an individual or group who experiences some type of inequity (i.e., a user). Teams will employ human-centered design practices to engineer a solution. Teams must use a coding component as the main component of their design. Teams must use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) in a community-centered capacity for their project. UN-SDG provides a broad view of global efforts to promote equity. Aligning to a goal will guide students in narrowing their focus to help their community. Team should achieve this by selecting a SDG Goal and identifying the SDG Target (i.e., 1.1, 1.2) the project is meant to address.
Resources:
- Human Centered Design - A quick video that describes human centered design.
- Human Centered Design Help - Some useful tools for interviewing clients, types of questions, initial prototyping, and much more.
- MESA USA Curriculum - Curriculum for all MESA states focusing on the NEDC
- Arduino Programming Course- A nice walk through of how the programming language works in an Arduino.
- Sparkfun - An educational space from SparkFun dedicated to Arduino.
- MakeCode - Microsoft provides a virtual environment for students to learn how to program Micro:Bit and Circuit Playground Express
- Beginner Arduino with Tinkercad Circuits - learn Arduino virtually using Tinkercad Circuits. Includes virtual demos of wiring and use of sensors and buttons.
- Paul McWhoter YouTube Channel - A series of 35 videos that go in depth on Arduino construction and programming.
- Makerspaces - A resource for beginners and how the Arduino works
- Poster Design Guide
- Poster Design Template - A PowerPoint file with 2 design ideas and a blank slide to design a poster. Meets the size requirement for the poster.
- Questions to Answer - A series of questions for teams to answer as they work through the challenge
- Pitch Example - A TED talk about a design to help premature babies.
- Project Invent Resource Library - Includes info on Design Thinking and an Arduino Crash Course.
Students will design and label a model and academic poster depicting a proposed Sustainability project for a student selected site in their community. The model and academic poster will be used to conduct a short presentation to judges about the need for the project, how the project works, the expected impact, and relevant data analysis.
Resources:
- UN Sustainability Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
- Green Building Learning Lab - resources from the US Green Building Council on building for environmental sustainability and LEED certification.
- 4-H Curriculum Curriculum from our partners at 4-H. You do need a log in to see the lessons
- ECORise Sustainable Intelligence Program - Teachers in Arizona qualify for free access to this curriculum.
- Poster Template - A template for the poster. The first 2 slides are design ideas, the 3rd slide is blank for teams to use.
Students will design a device to launch regulation Corn Hole bean bags at a regulation Corn Hole board to score 21 points in the fewest number of throws. Students will also be required to submit their Poster during specification check for review and scoring.
Resources
- Official Cornhole Rules and Game Play - to be used as a reference only, not as a replacement for rules stated in the specifications.
- Cornhole Board Top - to make your own cornhole boards
- Cornhole Bean Bags - regulation size
- Catapult Physics - basic overview of catapults, trebuchets, and ballista. These historical models could be used as a basis for launcher ideas.
- Poster Template - A template for the poster. The first 2 slides are design ideas, the 3rd slide is blank for teams to use.
- Standards in MESA - Cornhole Catapult.pdf
Students will design a remote-controlled robot designed to disable an opponent or push an opponent out of bounds. Students will also be required to submit their Design Poster for review and scoring.
Resources:
- Combat Robot Videos from Arizona MESA
- New Mexico Tech Robot Combat Program Videos
- Purchase Micro:Bit from STEM Education Works
- Starter Robot A simple robot from Instructables that can be used to start students thinking. **This is not a complete robot**
- Poster Template - A template for the poster. The first 2 slides are design ideas, the 3rd slide is blank for teams to use.
- BattleBots - can be used for inspiration for your design. **NOTE**- these are outside MESA specifications
- Starter Code - some starter code for micro:bit that can be used as a starting point for controlling the robot remotely
- RC with Micro:bit - An Instrucible with directions on how to create a remote control system using two Micro:bits
- RC Youtube - A YouTube with code on creating an RC controller with one Micro:bit
Team will design a helicopter that is made 100% out of paper, stay in the air for as long as possible, and land on a target. High School teams must also have a payload that weighs, at minimum, 10 grams. Students will also be required to submit their design poster ahead of MESA Day for review and scoring.
Resources:
- What is a Helicopter? from NASA
- How a Helicopter Works from Explain That Stuff
- Poster Template - A template for the poster. The first 2 slides are design ideas, the 3rd slide is blank for teams to use.
Students will participate in teams to solve a cyber crime using virtual and physical clues. Teams will need to solve cybersecurity problems to find the perpetrators. This event will be done live at MESA Day.
Resources:
- MESA Cyber Site - The site, with practice, for the challenge
- Cyberchef - a web app for encryption, encoding, compression and data analysis. This will help with the OSINT questions.
- Cheatography - a collection of cheat sheets and quick references. Will be helpful for linux questions.
- Crypto Club - A great resource for beginning cryptography
- CS Unplugged Cryptography - CSUnplugged activities
- Coding For Kids - A great explanation of what a program does.
- Trifid Cipher - An interesting cipher.
- Standards in MESA - Hack Attack.pdf
Teams will demonstrate teamwork and creative problem-solving skills by working collaboratively to design, construct and test a given objective/device within a specific period of time.
Resources
- Elecfreaks Cutebot - this bot will be used for this challenge. Purchase it here. Learn more about the Cutebot at https://elecfreaks.com/learn-en/microbitKit/smart_cutebot/index.html.
- Type of Teamwork - A nice video to have students reflect on effective and ineffective teamwork.
- Make Code - A good site for students to learn coding through various tutorials including virtual Micro:Bit projects
Teams will demonstrate teamwork and creative problem solving skills by working collaboratively to design, construct and test a given objective/device within a specific period of time.
Resources
- Type of Teamwork - A nice video to have students reflect on effective and ineffective teamwork.
- Engineering Challenges from Science Buddies - good practice challenges