Among the silver tin cans and sparkling cardboard towers, Gronnevedsjoen had a little green to it.

The model Icelandic city, whose name means “green city,” turned an eye toward the future not only in its design, but also in its environmental function. A geothermal power plant, greenhouses and a desalination plant all projected a world where fossil fuels and clean water are scarce.

“They did a lot of research and really learned a lot,” West Junior High School teacher Joan Parr said about the Future City project done by three of her students, eighth-graders Dylan Guthrie, Sam Walter and Dravid Joseph. “They were a really environmental group.”

The project was part of the Great Plains Regional Future City Competition, a contest that began in the fall and culminated on Saturday with tables full of model cities at the Kansas University Memorial Union.

The project was intended to steer middle school students toward engineering and urban development, with an eye toward what the future may bring or require.

While West Junior High was the only Lawrence school to enter the competition, its team placed well, grabbing a fourth-place finish out of more than 30 Kansas schools.

Dylan, Sam and Dravid, who are part of the school’s gifted program, won the Green Space award in the design portion of the contest.

Dylan said that at first, designing the city was frustrating. He and his classmates used a version of the top-selling video game “Sim City” and created a city filled with trees and parks to cut down on pollution.

The idea expanded to their model, Dylan said, and a focus on the environment took hold after plenty of research and consideration for what the future may need.

“I think it’s going to be very necessary,” he said of environmentally friendly future cities.

Saturday, Dylan, Dravid and Sam took Gronnevedsjoen all the way to the finals, but came up just short.

“A lot of the other cities were really great,” Dylan said afterward.

While Johnson County schools won the judge’s top prizes, Parr said that her class did great for its small size and limited time.

“Our kids did a lot of this on our own time,” she said. “I’m thrilled. This shows the impact of engineering in general.”