It was something I had never experienced: Judging middle school students and their science projects.
Maricopa middle school students in the blended-learning program creatively and at times dramatically teamed up to present their Future Cities Showcase projects Thursday night at Desert Wind Middle School.
They imagined and designed model cities a century into the future that were 100% powered by green, clean and renewable energy sources. The projects were made of recycled materials, including toilet paper rolls for cylindrical objects, which I joked about but don’t think my fellow judges appreciated.
The teams talked about imaginary cities such as New Dresden, Oriac, Zanzibar, Big Bill, Lucero, Crothelpdoun and Gadamascar (the redeveloped part of Madagascar, of course).
Since I consider myself somewhat of an environmentalist who owns a solar-powered home and drives an electric vehicle, I am quite open to…
