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Lyon Team takes 2nd At Future Cities

By MAGGIE MCMURRAY

Moapa Valley Progress

Mack Lyon student Future City presenters l to r Diego Rabines, Kyra Larsen, True Jarrel and Emily Macias show the model of their vision of Kyuego City at the annual competition held on Jan. 23. PHOTO COURTESY OF JACQULYN PRAY.
Mack Lyon student Future City presenters l to r Diego Rabines, Kyra Larsen, True Jarrel and Emily Macias show the model of their vision of Kyuego City at the annual competition held on Jan. 23. PHOTO COURTESY OF JACQULYN PRAY.

Students from Mack Lyon Middle School traveled to Las Vegas on January 23 for the annual Future Cities competition. Future Cities seeks to engage middle school students in doing the things real engineers would do, such as identify civic problems, brainstorm ideas, design solutions, test and retest, build, and then share results.

This year’s theme was “Waste Not, Want Not.” The kids are expected to take the theme and a good deal of research and imagination and create a new society that is their vision of the future. Their research involves identifying, choosing, and, in some cases, inventing everything their city would need to be sustainable such as food production and distribution, power sources, government, location, waste disposal, transportation, and all other issues a city may have.

Of course, this year, the most detail went into waste disposal, due to the theme. Each team prepared a powerpoint and oral presentation including pictures from the real world of ideas they would use in their city. In addition to their presentation, each team had to write an essay describing their city.
Then the real fun began as each team constructed a real-life model of what had, until this point, existed only in their imagination. Three members from each team were chosen as spokespersons for the competition to describe and defend the city to the judges and answer questions.

This year, 32 teams started the competition, but only 20 made it to judging day. Two of these were from Lyon middle school.
The first local team built a city called Christallum Civitatem. This city was presented by Abigail Dursteler, Cole Crickmer-Sprouse, and Trennan Boone.
Christallum was a sailing ship that traveled around the world to different ports to help cities with their waste management. For the competition, the ship was docked off the coast of Puerto Rico.
This team won the award for the most innovative design as well as an award for being one of the top five models in the competition. The top models, including this one, will be on display at the Springs Preserve until February 27.

Only five teams are allowed into the finals competition and they must all be from different schools. This year, the other team from Lyon was able to secure a coveted finals spot with their city Kyuego. Spokesmen for the Kyuego team included True Jarrel, Kyra Larsen, and Diego Rabines.
Kyuego was designed to be a city in Pakistan after the country had been torn apart by violence, government, and pollution. It was created as a green city to give Pakistan a new image.
Because of the population density of the area, it was a city of skyscrapers, while underground was reserved for waste management to keep the land free for urban sprawl.

Kyuego was able to create a working magnetic/levitation transportation system on their model, which was the first time this had been accomplished by any team ever in the competition. The sea was utilized for farming and for energy with algae farming and underwater solar panels.
Kyuego won the award for best essay and was also awarded a Top 5 Model spot. They were then chosen to advance to the finals where they re-competed and ended up in 2nd place overall, only 2 points behind Las Vegas powerhouse Hyde Park.

For their 2nd place finish, they were invited to present their city during Engineering Week to all the engineers in Southern Nevada at a formal dinner at the Gold Coast Hotel on February 27.
“I feel every year it is grand,” said Jacqulyn Pray who mentored both teams. “These kids really worked hard and came together as a school, not just individual teams. They were always encouraging and helping each other out on their models. I saw a lot of growth in each of them, especially those that stepped into leadership roles. It was heartbreaking to get 2nd again, but at the same time, we were thrilled because our teams took home so many awards while other teams weren’t as lucky. It was a great year.”

Mack Lyon teacher Crystal Blackwell, who was the advisory for the project, was also pleased with the students’ performance..
“I would like to tell my students that when I saw them at competition getting excited about all that they accomplished, I couldn’t have been more proud of them,” she said.
The teams did not consist only of the spokespersons. Recognition also needs to go to the supporting team members who did not compete, but helped imagine, plan, and build. This year’s supporting team members were Daniel Grossman, Tori Morrill, Romeo Elenes, Emily Macias, Zoe Zubia, and Kaitlyn Ransome.

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