Middle schoolers imagine future cities

CEDAR RAPIDS - Imagine looking into the future 150 years. What would your city look like?

Middle-school students from across the state competed Saturday for just who had the best vision during the Future City event at Prairie Point Middle School. The annual competition - won by a team from Clear Creek Amana Middle School - is part of National Engineers Week.

Elise Beer, 14, from Franklin Middle School in Cedar Rapids, explained the project she had worked on with classmates M.J. Kamin, 13, and Katarina Kohn, 13.

“It's a floating city with nine million people in the Year 2629,” Beer said of their creation called “Kemakmuran.”

Asked where the restaurants were, Beer said, with a smile, “This is the industrial part.”

Judges walked throughout the school gym, peppering the students with questions about teamwork as well as their engineering skills.

“The first judges came by, and I was nervous,” Kamin said. “But the nerves wore off.”

Tom Easton, regional coordinator of Future Cities, said the students have to know much more than just building and planning principles.

“Public speaking doesn't hurt,” he said. “Thinking on your feet is important, too.”

Madison Miller, 13, of Harding Middle School in Cedar Rapids, flourished on the public speaking end of it.

With her city, called “Transportation,” Miller sounded very convincing in showing off her team's creation.

“It purifies the air of the vehicles in motion,” Miller said, saying her team worked on a theme of clean air.

Once her pitch was complete, Miller said the project was very stressful but fun.

Team “Paxana” - three girls from Clear Creek Amana Middle School - opted to dress alike, with white dress shirts and black neckties featuring the peace logo. They said the long hours did not take too much of a toll on their friendship.

“I like the unique designs of the buildings and using natural things incorporated into everything,” said Allison O'Keefe, 13.

O'Keefe and Anna Johnson, 13, and Gabrielle Scarpa, 13, created Paxana as a future city in western Nevada.

“We have excellent educations and grow crops on tops of buildings,” Johnson said of their future city, pressing a button to rotate a circular apartment building. “That's so you can see all edges of it.”

Paxana captured first place and will advance to the national competition in Washington, D.C., in February. The eventual national champion wins a trip to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.

-By Chris Earl, KCRG-TV9 News