Miller Middle School students and a mentor are pictured with their city model project as part of the Future City contest held in Cedar Rapids on January 20. Pictured are Miller students, from left, Jonny Needs, Madi Ricken and Jackie Diaz and local engineer Justin Strom from Clapsaddle-Garber Associates.
Miller Middle School students built city models and presented them as part of a competition called Future City at Prairie Point Middle School in Cedar Rapids on January 20. The students were participating in the project as part of a Miller Project Based Learning class from teacher Shan Mooney.
As they researched for the project, students learned about city infrastructure, scale and zoning and toured The Embers retirement community.
“The problem this year for the competition was to think of ways to make life better for senior citizens,” Mooney said. “We took a tour of The Embers to see what their facility has to offer seniors.”
Models were built mostly from recycled materials. The group also enlisted the help of engineer Justin Strom from the Marshalltown-based civil engineering and land surveying firm Clapsaddle-Garber Associates.
“He helped the students with scale and looked over their essays and critiqued the student presentations,” Mooney said. “He was a great help in the whole process.”
Miller sent two projects to the Future City contest.
“The competing students did an excellent job for our first experience at this competition and are excited to introduce the project to students next year,” Mooney said.
Rebekah Stone is pictured with a city model project she created with fellow Miller Middle School student Eh Blu Moo.
