8th Grade M.E.S.A. Students took on the Giant Mouse in the Happiest Place on Earth. . . .Disneyland!
Students spent 3 very long, and dedicated years within the M.E.S.A. program at West and were rewarded for the great participation by traveling the week after school in May to California!
We left EARLY on Saturday morning after school got out and travelled to the booming metropolous of Green River, UT. Through the desert of Utah, students learned about the Geologic structures that make up the Great Colorado Plateau of Eastern Utah! Following several naps of consciousness in the looming southwestern Utah desert landscape, we arrived came upon some of the greatest engineering and electrical feats of all of North America. . . .Las Vegas (which was literally a HUGE shock to every student in the car)! After learning about how our own Colorado River helps to fill Lake Mead and eventually helps make electricity for Las Vas, we continued on to our first night’s destination. We enjoyed the very windy city of Primm, Nevada! We stayed at the Buffalo Bills Hotel and enjoyed the frigid swimming pool. Don’t you doubt for a second that these dedicated car-tired, land-locked Colorado students didn’t find themselves in the near 50 degree water for almost an hour!!!
From there we took a trip through Death Valley and eventually ended up traversing down into the smog-ridden San Bernandino Valley! As we descended into the Los Angeles Basin, students were able to have a literal taste of pollution, and what a fascinating scientific phenemenon!!!
Day 2 contined by helping us to find ourselves on the shores of Laguna Beach, CA! Beautiful ocean views topped out as a trip favorite and first for 4 out of 6 of our students!!!! We frollicked and played like little kids and found ALLSORTS of amazing animal and plant life on the Laguna shores.
Day 3 of our adventure found us in BEAUTIFUL San Diego, CA and the home of Shamu the Whale! After Jessie, Cyn-Dee and Mrs. Ragsdale braved the SOAK ZONE at the Shame exhibit, students raced around Sea World discovering dolphins, kangaroos, 100 year-old sea turtles that didn’t even look real, and Mrs. Ragsdale’s favorite, the penguins!!!
Day 4 we headed to Mrs. Moran’s favorite place on earth (and might we add her 58th visit). . . .DISNEYLAND! Excitement could not be found in more than one heart but Mrs. Moran’s as she raced around the land of the mouse with literally no paths missed only to crash into the hotel bed after nearly 14 hours! (Mrs. Ragsdale would definitely like to add that Mrs. Moran put Mickey on her bad list after being snubbed by the Head Mouse himself as Mrs. Moran waited so patiently in line for a picture!) Maybe next time Moran, eh??? We ended our evening at Disneyland to the roar of the World of Color and the famous “WHen you wish upon a star. .. ” light show! Students definitely tested the forces of physics, including many G’s while riding some of the country’s most scientific and scary adventures!!!
Our road trip back took two days of the 2011 CALIFORNIA trip, and we ventured to Hoover Dam and were able to do a group-guided Dam Tour, which included our Dam Tour Guides with expertise in Concrete, Electricity, Engineering, and Hydro-Geo-Fluvial-Morphology, the very own M.E.S.A. advisors, Mrs. Moran and Mrs. Ragsdale.
Our final day, M.E.S.A. students reminisced about their M.E.S.A. years in middle school! They projected about the significance of Math Engineering Science Achievement in their own lives, not only in middle school, but for their lives beyond their school years!!! Good Luck in High School dear M.E.S.A. students! We will miss you very much and be sure to look for our West Middle School M.E.S.A. alumni updates in the near future!
Mrs. Moran and Mrs. Ragsdale