Afterschool program gets assist

Students in an afterschool program at Orland High School are building robots.

The program – Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement ­– is designed for minority and disavantaged students interested in the subjects.

For their big project this year, 26 MESA participants from all grade levels are assembling and programming small robots.

Later this year they will be entered into a regional “sumobot” contest with the five other MESA programs in the area, according to math teacher Alberto Mojica.

The students had no previous programming experience, but they are having a good time.

“It’s fun working with robots and making them work to your expectations,” 17-year-old senior Felipe Medina Jr. said.

Chico State support

Sponsored by California State University, Chico, OHS uses the same Lego Mind Storms software as the university to program the robots, Mojica said.

In the Chico State area, only Orland and Williams high schools were chosen to test the robot program for MESA.

Mojica said Chico State’s dean of engineering, computer science and construction management approached him in 2003 about establishing MESA at the Orland campus.

The decision was easy, Mojica said.

Computer science professor Renee Renner travels to Orland twice a week to conduct the program.

Competitions

With math as the basis for all their projects, all MESA students must enter a math competition. They compete with other students at their grade level.

Though they meet twice a week to work on their projects, students meet once a month just to study math.

They also choose from 12 projects each year and enter them in regional, state and national competitions.

In 2008, OHS took first

place overall at the Chico competition. Students also came in first in the “mouse-trap car” competition. They built cars out of mouse traps and the one that traveled farthest won.

The big competition at Chico State this year will be the first weekend in March.

One of the projects students will enter is using wind energy to move water.

Advantages

Other than learning how to build and program robots and other interesting projects, many MESA students show improved grades in math and science and get to go on fun field trips.

Junior Hortensia Llamas, 16, said before she joined MESA she did not like science and math, but now “it’s more interesting,” she said, noting that “later in life it’s going to be important to know.”

Since joining, she also is getting better grades in those classes, she said.

Hortensia, Roger Thor and Armando Sedano last spring took a special tour of the Google campus in Mountain View.

“It was great,” she said.

Another advantage of being in the program is the opportunity to meet top professions.

Professor Emeritus Ralph Huntsinger, who taught at Chico State and the Bialystock Technical University in Poland, visited the group.

 He spoke about his experiences as a computer simulation engineer for the National Aeronautics and Science Agency and for the European Space Agency.

He also emphasized that “mathematics is the queen of the sciences,” noting that understanding math will enhance any career.

What it takes

While the program seeks Mojica said as long as students meet the grade requirements, they are not likely to be turned away.

But the most important criteria is “the desire to work with math and science,” Mojico said.

Students also must maintain a minimum 2.3 grade point average, though most carry a 3.0 or higher and several have 4.0s, he noted.

Top priority is given to students who will be the first in their families to go to college or university; who are underrepresented minorities at the university; and who come from low income families.