ASHLAND — Students at Crestview Middle School spent months researching, brainstorming and crafting a model city of the future.
The result was NewTree Evergreen, a zero-waste metropolis with an underground recycling center.
NewTree Evergreen won first place in the statewide Future City competition and competed virtually in the international finals last month. The results from the competition are still being decided, but the class is asking for the public’s help in the People’s Choice category.
Community members can vote for their favorite Future City team by visiting https://vote.futurecity.org and searching by team name or state.
Votes must be submitted by March 18.
Future City is a project-based learning program where students research, design and build cities of the future.
Each year, students are given a specific problem and must create a futuristic city that addresses the issue. This year’s challenge was to create a waste-free city with a circular economy.
“We typically just do a linear economy, create it, use it, throw it away for the most part,” said teacher Jennifer Blackledge. “They investigated how to collect it back, break it down into its parts, manufacture something new and then distribute it to be sold.”
Crestview’s team included Jonathon Moore, Erica Davisson, James Stevens, Deryn Moore, Scarlett Allison, Kennedy Lehman, Caden Bistline, Monte Cline, Brayden Parrigan, Carson Metcalf, Zachery Peterman, Bronson Rose and Marc Salser.
In addition to winning the state title, Crestview was named best architectural model, best moving part, best use of recycled materials, best recreational area, most environmentally friend city, best use of transportation and best project plan in Ohio.
Results from the international competition will be announced on March 23 at 1 p.m. A livestream of the ceremony will be available on https://futurecity.org/.
