Ba Shoileir placed second in the Future City Competition at ASU and won other awards as well.

Maricopa students collected 17 awards at the Arizona regional Future City Competition at Arizona State University on Saturday.

Maricopa Unified School District sent 16 teams from its two middle schools. One team from Maricopa Wells placed second overall, and a Desert Wind team finished fourth.

Through the Future City Competition program, students implement science, technology, engineering and math to build their vision of “the urban world of tomorrow.”

The imagined city of Ba Shoileir, created by MWMS students Megan Hahn, Erin Hildick and Anabelle Dayley, earned the second-place plaque and claimed the Public Choice Award. Noted for its humorous presentation, Ba Shoileir also won the Architectural Excellence Award and Best Application of Quality Concepts to Future.

This year’s theme was “Waste Not, Want Not,” emphasizing sustainability through waste management. The team Veritas Home Schoolers won the competition and will take their city to the national competition in Washington, D.C.

“The success at this competition is the product of the blended learning environment at Desert Wind and Maricopa Wells,” said Jen Szoltysik, 20+1 Blended Learning teacher at DWMS. “We utilize project-based learning that enhances the students’ intellectual creativity. We are lucky to have such amazing students and the support of all of the parents in our program. We are thankful that the district supports the Blended Learning program at all of our schools.”

Shannon Hull from Desert Wind and Robyn Rice and Joe Szoltysik from Maricopa Wells also guided the students through their projects. Both schools had help from engineers Gerry Hahn, Damon Hahn, Robb Witte and Christian Schrader.

The DWMS team Novos Comecos, comprised of Savannah Shelabarger, Jordan Levy, Rhiannon Reed and project manager Jaden Pyle, was the fourth-place team. They also won the Special Award for Project Management for Jaden and the Walton Sustainable Community Award.

The Rugsberg team of D’Avion Cyprian, Jailynn Cannon, Elizabeth Barba and project manager Alexia Timmons from DWMS won the award for Best City Description and the Award of Distinction.

Volturnus, created by MWMS students Connor Witte, James Daxton Redfern and Bryan Pick, won Best Scale Model and Best Multimodal Transportation System.

Gronn Vekkelse, DWMS’s Alysa Huffman, Henry McCloskey and Parker Hunsaker, won Best Team Presentation, Best Team Effort and a Walton Sustainable Community Award.

Reine Luft, created by DWMS students Riley Bell-Niver, Jarom Hoopes and Jeanette Gord, won Best Design for Sustainability.

The Innovative Use of Infrastructure award went to Gexin, comprised of Emma Shrader, John Travis Daniel and Joseline Nowell from MWMS.  The award for Excellence in Use of Building Materials went to
Tulevaisuus, a team comprised of Airen Fortunato, Sydney Anderson and Genesis Uriarte-Sandoval from DWMS.

“Many of these awards also came with a monetary prize along with a plaque that will be proudly hung in our Blended Learning classrooms,” Szoltysik said.