photo by: Lawrence school district

The Southwest Middle School Future City team — Team Karachi, Pakistan — won the regional competition and is headed to the finals in Washington, D.C.

Southwest Middle School students will be heading to Washington, D.C., next month to participate in the international finals of the Future City competition.

The trip to the finals will be the ninth for the school. This year a Southwest eighth grade team will represent the Great Plains Future City Kansas-KC Metro Region during Engineer’s Week Feb. 18-24, according to a news release from the Lawrence school district.

The Future City competition begins with the question “How can we make the world a better place?” Middle school students then imagine, research, design and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. The competition has multiple components: a 1,500-word city essay; a scale model (or multiple model segments) built from recycled materials; a project plan; a presentation video; and a Q&A session with judges.

photo by: Lawrence school district

Southwest Middle School’s Team Kano, Nigeria, pictured, will join the school’s Team Karachi, Pakistan, at the Future City finals in Washington, D.C.

Regional champions, Southwest’s Team Karachi, Pakistan, include Max Bolick, Chloe Carnagey, Penny Coleman, Aila Glendening, Ainslee Graham, Logan Harned, Ryan Hethcoat, Celeste Jenkins, Juliet Johnson, Hailey Kim, Isaac Perrins and Nina Wilson. For the finals, that team will be joined by Southwest’s Team Kano, Nigeria, which includes Caroline Davis, Winry Eymard, Ruby Fritzel, Aiden Gonzalez, Tola Jankowski, Savannah Lynch, Kate Neilson, Henry Roberts, Cooper Salmans, Allen Shao, Laurel Stancil, Nate Willems and Ruth Yang.

Team Kano won PMIEF Best Project Plan and APWA Best Infrastructure Awards at regionals.

Southwest’s Future City teams are coached by Danielle Lotton-Barker, gifted education teacher. Chris Storm is their professional engineer mentor.

In addition to Southwest’s success, West Middle School’s Team Nuuk, Greenland, finished in second place at regionals. Their coach is Jessica Miescher-Lerner, gifted education teacher.