Friendly Hills Students Build Metropolises with SimCity, Earn City Council Accolades

The Mendota Heights City Council recognized Friendly Hills Middle students for competing in the 2013 Future City Competition.

District 197 has more in a press release:

Three teams of 7th and 8th graders created plans for how cities of the future manage energy use, transportation, infrastructure, waste disposal and storm water runoff. The students used SimCity software to design their future cities, then constructed models, wrote research essays and narratives about their plans, and gave oral presentations about their cities at the competition.

All students in 7th and 8th grade Friendly Hills Gifted and Talented classes prepared projects for the Future City Competition, and after a school contest, three teams advanced to the state competition. All three teams placed in the top 10 out of 44 teams at the Future City Competition on Jan. 19, 2013.

• The team of Jamie Herridge, Margaret Prokosch and Michala Zien finished 8th.

• The team of Caleb Golberg, Peter Gould, Matthew Morse and Gabriel Segura finished 10th and won the Innovative Power System award.

• The team of Leah Boudreau, Victoria Garner and Madeline Hudalla finished 6th.

Other students who participated in the school contest were Nicholas Crary, Anna Dupont, Jordan Epstein, Evan Johnson, Alexander Malen, Thomas Miranda, Josh Partyka, Ellie Thirsten and Mary Yotter.

The students were mentored throughout their project planning by John Mazzitello, city engineer of Mendota Heights, who organized the special recognition at the Mendota Heights City Council meeting.

“To place a single team in the top 10 is a challenging enough task in this competition,” Mazzitello said, “but to place all three teams in the top 10 finishers demonstrates just how much of an emphasis Friendly Hills Middle School and School District 197 places on the competition and the learning lessons associated with it.”

During the City Council meeting, students from each of the three teams spoke about their projects and shared what they had learned by doing this competition. Several expressed interest in pursuing careers in engineering.

Friendly Hills’ Gifted and Talented Teacher Doug Petty said this is the third year Friendly Hills has participated in the Future City Competition. Every year, Mazzitello has mentored the students, and this year the students were also assisted by the City Engineers of Eagan and West St. Paul.

“Our students are so appreciative of the chance to work with our local city engineers and learn from their real-life experience,” Petty said. “We look forward to pursuing more opportunities to work with our city representatives in the future.”