One of the new courses we have offered at Mahtomedi Middle School this year is Future Cities. The course is taught by Katie Dosland with support from Kathryn Marget, Program Coordinator, Mahtomedi Advanced Academics (Gifted and Talented) program, and their Engineer Mentor, Max Gort, a planner with the City of Hugo.
This year’s Future Cities challenge asked students to build a 100% electrically powered city with energy generated from sources that keep citizens and the environment healthy and safe. Students in the class worked on several "deliverables" through the fall, including project plans, research notes, expense reports, and a formal essay describing their futuristic city. The final step was to create a physical model using recycled materials and moveable parts.
The course has an optional academic competition component, and interested students could pursue the State-level Future Cities competition. One team of students pursued the competition with their project called “Superior City,” and the creators included Riley Parizek, Logan Albrecht, Xiaohan Fang, Laela Lee, Tegan Evans, and Elizabeth Moscou. Tegan and Elizabeth presented at the competition in January and gave two separate formal presentations about their futuristic clean energy city and engaged in more than nine other interviews with professional engineers. They took home the "Most Practical Design" award at the competition!