New Richmond Middle School faculty advisor Vicky Phillips(left), Analiese Rohdes, Jenny Roberts, Audrey Feiler and engineer mentor Bill Ehlers with New Richmond Middle School's Alpha Seti Six city of the future at COSI in Columbus.
While they still love their New Richmond community, some students at New Richmond Middle School came up with a better place to live, albeit 150 years from now.
That place is Alpha Seti Six, located just east of Australia, which features floating residential areas and green energy. It’s a city they designed for the Ohio Regional of Future City Competition held in January at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus.
New Richmond was one of only 19 schools in Ohio to compete at COSI. The Future City project is an engineering mentorship for middle school students in which the students design a city at least 150 years in the future using Sim City software.
They also researched engineering concepts, invented new technology and wrote essays and narratives about the city. The students then created a three-dimensional model of the city, within certain restraints (dimensions, money spent, etc.), using mostly recycled materials, and containing a moving part.
Their design included renewable energy sources of solar, wind, water, waves and gravitational pull including a working model of a water turbine.
While they did not finish in the top five in the competition, the New Richmond Middle School team was recognized for their design.
“We won't know the final places until later when the results are released, but we know that we were not in the top five teams overall,” said faculty adviser Vicky Phillips.
“But we did receive an honorable mention award for the Best Computer City Design. Our city was designed by Kurt Greifenkamp.”
Students on the NRMS team were Greifenkamp, Stone Oliver, Nathan Rostetter, Tristan Williams (eighth graders) and John Buckingham, Miles Burnham, Audrey Feiler, Jenny Roberts, Analiese Rohdes, and Stephen Wolf (seventh graders). Roberts, Rohdes, and Feiler were the presenters at COSI where the project was judged by a panel of engineers.
Roberts, Rohdes, Buckingham, Williams, Oliver, Greifenkamp and Rostetter wrote an 874 word essay for the project.
“Our engineer mentor was Mr. Bill Ehlers, and his expertise was a great asset to the team,” said Phillips. Mr. Ehlers is a retired engineer who worked for Procter & Gamble and the U.S. Navy.
