Innovation helps Crestview students capture title at Ohio Future City competition:
Deborah Lynn Ruby:
Imagine a future with zero waste: where there’s no trash cans or landfills, where even air pollution can be recycled. A group of Crestview Middle School students did just that to win the top honor in a statewide STEM competition.
Crestview’s model metropolis took first place in the Ohio region’s DiscoverE Future City competition, earning seven special awards. Future City is a project-based learning program where students research, design and build the cities of the future. Each year, they’re given a different problem and must create a futuristic city that addresses it.
This year’s challenge? Create a waste-free metropolis with a circular economy. Crestview’s team developed their project during a semester-long course taught by Jennifer Blackledge, the middle school’s computer science teacher. The students dreamt up a two-tiered metropolis with an underground recycling and manufacturing center. Even air pollution was recycled, harnessed and used to fuel airplanes.
Their city, which they named NewTree Evergeen, has mixed layout with commercial and residential buildings side by side. In the center of town, residents can take refuse items and send them down to a recycling center through a network of tubes. Pedestrians can walk along the street or inside a tube walkway with a conveyor belt that weaves between buildings, or hop on a magnet-operated hoverbus.
There’s even a bamboo forest — a sensible option–since bamboo grows faster than trees and can be used to make a variety of items from toilet paper to textiles. Crestview Middle school really stepped up to the plate this year–beating out 29 other teams.
And in addition to winning first place, their city earned awards for the best architectural model, best moving part, best use of recycled materials, best recreational area, most environmentally friendly city, best use of transportation and best project plan. Their top score earned them a spot in the national finals, too.
Of course, future City projects involve far more than building a model. Students had to first research solutions, which they then explained in an essay, skit and question-and-answer slideshow. Each team was also required to submit a project plan.
The students represented Ohio in part one of the national finals on Saturday, and will continue with the special awards competition on Feb. 12. Results will be released next month.
Remember Ashland Olympian Jaclyn “Jackie” Jeschelnig-Ulm?
Now, some local history. Did you know that Jaclyn “Jackie” Jeschelnig-Ulm is an American hammer thrower and a graduate of Ashland University?
She won five NCAA Division II and nine Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship titles in both the hammer and weight throw, and achieved a 39th-place finish at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She also owned an outdoor personal best of 68.83 meters by placing first at the 2004 Ohio State Relays Meet in Columbus which secured her a spot on the U.S. Olympic track and field team.
Next, an event that you should know about. This Saturday, The Gorman Nature Center is hosting their All Day Family Friendly Bird Day. From 8am to 5pm, explore 130 acres of forests, fields, prairies, ponds and streams filled with some of Ohio’s best bird watching. People have recently spotted red-bellied woodpeckers, Carolina Chickadees, Blue Jays, Red-breasted Nuthatches, American Goldfinches, and so many more feathered friends.
Deborah Lynn Ruby
Finally, we’d like to take a moment to remember Deborah Lynn Ruby, of Gambier. Deborah was born in Marion, Indiana in 1950 and attended Mount Vernon High School. She married Richard Allen Pruett in 1967. He passed away in 1987. She then married Ronald Lee Ruby in 1995. Deborah’s main occupation was being a wife and mother. She also maintained a timeshare in Apple Valley. She attended Covenant Church in Mount Vernon, loved planting flowers, hiking, singing, and traveling.
She will be deeply missed by her husband, daughter, grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, sister, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. Thank you for taking a moment with us to remember and celebrate Deborah’s life.
