Middle schoolers envision the future of urban life

CEDAR RAPIDS - The gymnasium at Prairie Point Middle School is filled with tables that are covered with spray-painted bottles, cans and Styrofoam packages arranged to form neat rows of miniature buildings.

Welcome to the cities of the future.

Schools from across Iowa came to Prairie Point on Saturday for the regional Future City competition. The annual contest challenges students' science and math skills by asking them to design a model of what a typical city might look like in a few hundred years. Students this year had the added challenge of focusing on how residents of their cities receive health care.

In order to make it to the regional level, students had to write an essay on their city and build a digital model in addition to the physical one, according to program coordinator Jean Oberbroeckling.

“The best thing about this for students is they see how math, science, language arts and social studies all work together in the real world. It all boils down to what you're going to do with it in the end,” she said.

It took a lot of research into theoretical dome technology before a team of Franklin Middle School students were able to develop their underwater city, Hewa-Mawinga. The model designed by Lauren Wibe, 13, Mary Azelborn, 13, Nicole Carver, 13, and Grayson Burgess, 14, used recycled materials as well as a Lego-based magnetic transportation system.

“We did a lot of research for the dome and came up with a geodesic pattern that's become really popular. It's triple redundant with three layers of glass. If one layer is compromised, we evacuate, but it's really safe and really strong,” Wibe said.

Rizwan Sidhu, 12, Sean Wu, 12, and Austin Wu, 12, also from Franklin, chose to don lab coats to draw the focus to the medical component of their city, Alro By, which was cancer treatment. They envisioned a piece of equipment would treat brain cancer in a large overhead helmet modeled to look like equipment at a salon or spa.

---- Estradas Energia, a city from the year 2211 designed by Harding Middle School students Jessica Gribble, 14, Lexi Forstrom, 14, and Sara Langholz, 14, had futuristic components built into its design. The girls spray-painted lava lamps, Jenga blocks and old CDs with gold and silver paints to mimic photovoltaic paint that could theoretically absorb sunlight and convert it to energy.

---- First place at the competition was awarded to the Harding Middle School team of eighth-graders Abhinaya Gunaseka, 14, Fatima Elsheikh, 14, and Lauren Meyer, 14. They will take their aboriginal-inspired Australian outback city along with its gene-based health care system to the national competition in February in Washington.