Maricopa Wells Middle School students competed Thursday night to send eight teams to the Future Cities Competition regionals at ASU Preparatory School in downtown Phoenix on Jan. 21. 

On Jan. 12, Desert Wind Middle School will showcase its eight teams that also will go to regionals. 

 After a three-year hiatus, blended-learning students at the two schools have been working on their Future Cities projects. 

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According to Jacqueline Hahn, a teacher in one of the Maricopa Wells blended-learning classes, students are learning life skills from the project. 

“Because it is an in-depth engineering project, students are getting exposure to real-world skills, some of the things that engineers, city planners and project managers do,” Hahn said.  

“I think they are also getting exposure to the interactions between our core subjects. They had to write an essay, scale a model and research the science behind it all. It is really a cross curricular project in pulling it all together.” 

Students, family members, teachers and community leaders attended the showcase in the Maricopa Wells library.  

Maricopans viewed the cities while students prepared for their presentation time slots. Students would then present their cities and answer questions from the panel of judges. 

At the end of the night, Maricopa Wells’ top eight teams going to regionals:

  • Aoife: Cameron Hayes, Elle McDermott, Jordan Smith and Joseph Reed and Rylee Lopez.   
  • Belleza: Brooke Macdonald, Dahlila Kellch, Jameson Jenkins and Krysta Calamusa. 
  • Hallstatt: Logan Fisher, Ashlyn Grutzius, Rori Blader and Emily Crowell-Viloria. 
  • Kai Ku’Ono: Ireland Corral, Jada Armstrong, Kasaundra Owczarski and Sophia Garci.   
  • Mt. Metropolis: Aliyah Cox, Logan Meyer, Zena Palmer and Joseph Pollack. 
  • Suezcalia: Christopher Voigt, Orion Chaturvedi, Jay’Lanna McClinton and Michael Fix. 
  • Takoradi: Baltej Beemat, Brookely Watome, Illianna Garcia and Tommy Capallia. 
  • Tubig: Brian Fernandez Chavez, Juan Trejo, Ricky Sitts and Steven Hancock-Contreras. 

A look at the Future Cities Competition through photos by Brian Petersheim Jr.: 

VIDEO: Maricopa Wells Middle School – Future Cities Competition 2023 – YouTube