Middle school club builds model of a sustainable N.Y.C.
May 31, 2023
Middle school students in the Future Cities after-school club spent Monday afternoons imagining and creating a future N.Y.C. using only materials that would otherwise be trash. The club followed the guidelines of the international Future City Competition, and even though they did not enter their final product in the contest, they learned a lot about the importance of building sustainable cities during the process of making their model.
“And [so], these middle schoolers brainstormed, did some research and they decided that the local climate change that would have the most impact in one hundred years in New York would be sea level rise, which was accurate,” said Adam Zaid, club advisor.
One of the Future City Competition rules was that participants were not allowed to purchase materials and instead had to use existing waste. So, the students used containers from food such as yogurt, milk and Pringles packaging to make their model.
“I would like to bend a little bit of the rules,” said sixth grade student, Chesleigh Doligon. “So like, you can buy stuff, but have a budget of about $20.”
Amina El-Batachi, who is also in sixth grade, agreed. “We are limited to what we can use. We can’t use paper because it’s not a recycled thing,” she said.
Unfortunately, the club was unable to enter their city in the competition, due to time constraints.
“I want to continue doing it, but it needs more than one 45-minute period a week. The teams that compete and present in the conferences, which we did not do, they have it as a class and they need at least 3 hours a week,” said Zaid.
Despite not entering the contest, the club members were happy with the overall experience.
“It’s really fun,” said Doligon. Olivia Gerloven agreed. “I would do it again. They’re in my class so they were my classmates first, and now they’re all my closest friends,” she said.
