DWMS, MWMS to compete Saturday in Future City regional

Youth are keeping an eye on the future in Maricopa.

Sixteen academic teams from Desert Wind and Maricopa Wells middle schools have advanced to the Arizona Future City Regional Competition.

They will compete Saturday starting at 7 a.m. at Arizona State University.

The theme for this year’s nationwide Future City competition is “Feed Future Cities,” and middle schoolers have been studying urban agriculture. The winners at the regional competition go on to nationals in Washington, D.C., in February.

Future City is a STEM-based program emphasizing science, technology and math.

The MUSD 20+1 teams earned their places in the regional competition after local judging Jan. 5-9 at MWMS.

“We are extremely proud of all of our students,” MUSD 20+1 teacher Robyn Rice said. “Although not all of the groups will continue to the Arizona competition, they all worked equally hard and learned a lot.”

The teams selected a vegetable and a protein and designed a way to grow enough of each to feed the citizens of their Future City. Their projects included a scale model of their vision of a perfect city and an explanation of the society that lives there.

Among the regional qualifiers was the team of Kunst van de Oogst, comprised of Jordan McGee, Megan Hahn, Trevor Thompson and the late Morgan Martin, who died on Christmas Day. The team kept a photo of Morgan on their display as part of their MWMS squad.

Other MWMS Future Cities teams competing will be Kenko Toshi (Emma Lee Morano, Evan Grace, Emma Schrader and Aman Mahant); Diamant de l'Arizona (Joseph Rice, Elise Brown Thunder, Emily Cordero and Sarah Skrnich);  Lake of Hope (Nikki Watson, Jordan Robertson and Jessica McGee); Nueva Era (Michael Hildick, Andres Martinez, Kassidy Rigby and Katrina Riddell); Arable (Caitlyn Goldner, Travis Daniel, Kobi Weimer and Jose Arroyo); Genoa  (Nicholas Perez, Elias Brown Thunder, Connor Witte and Gabriel Thornsbury); and Matamis (Daxton Redfern, Bryan Pick, Jacquelyn Bui and Clarissa Sauceda).

***ADVERTISEMENT***DWMS Future Cities teams are Alto Granja (Ruth Sherwood, Rainie Sanders and D'Avion Cyprian); Para Dar (Alyssa Huffman, Sydney McDill, Aniya Windsor and Shane Sexton);  Juwel (Savannah Shelabarger, Ana Hopped, Isabel Younicutt and Riley Bell-Nicer); Piao Yuan Gong (Henry McCloskey, Parker Hunsaker, Jonah Benson and Matthew Whitely); Rio Ventoso (Alex Kramarczyk, Skylar Dugan, Deborah Stenzel and David Henderson); Wai Wai Lepo (Jade McAnelly, David Luna and Brendan Collins); Ayiana (Logen Thomas, Brian Petersheim, Landen Thomas and Ryan Stuart); and Mt. Barre des Ecrins (Anthony Krella, Lyn Muriuki, Daisy Leal, Kale Norris).