Five 7th grade students from Waukee South Middle School recently competed in the national "Future City" competition. Future City is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) based, competition for which students create a city they envision 100 years into the future. Waukee City Planner Melissa DeBoer (far right in the photo) worked with teacher Karlee McKibban (far left in the photo) and the five students throughout the school year as they worked on their essay to describe the city, their virtual design using SimCity and their scaled model of the city. The team included students Anden Barriage, Adam Koch, Anwitha Vempati, Jackson Minton and Lilly Froehlich. DeBoer was the team’s mentor and provided technical assistance to the students including teaching them about the basics of city planning and zoning. Melissa met with the students during their class time twice a week leading up to the Iowa Regional Competition which was held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on January 20.
Three of the students presented their city project to the judges. They were judged on the construction of their model, the thoroughness of their seven-minute presentation to the judging panel and more. The Waukee South Middle School students took home the special award for Best Use of Public Transportation. A team from Decorah went on to win the regional competition and will present their city at Future City Nationals in Washington, D.C. in February. Congrats to Waukee Middle School!