ASHLAND — If human beings ever decide to build a city on the moon, it will take ingenuity, problem-solving and perseverance. They might turn to a trio of Crestview middle schoolers for ideas.
Elyse Belcher, Leyna Gerich and Mia Humrichouser recently took third place at a state competition for their design of a lunar city they named Belhouserich.
The girls created Belhouserich for Future City, a project-based learning program where students imagine, research, design and build a city that showcases their solution to a citywide sustainability issue.
The 2020-2021 Future City theme was “Living on the Moon.” Students had to use at least two moon resources to keep residents healthy and safe.
Living on the moon has its challenges — moonquakes and meteorites, shards of razor sharp particles whipped around by the lunar winds, even radiation.
The girls spent months researching, brainstorming and testing solutions to these problems for their project. In the end, they developed a plan that earned them three special awards — best project plan, best use of recycled materials and best architectural model — in addition to third place overall.
Every aspect of the miniature moon village was thoughtfully planned.
Underground tunnels made of lava (yes, there is lava on the moon) provide a secure place to store food and resources as well as a refuge during the occasional meteor shower.
Circular dome-shaped structures make it harder for chunks of moon dust to chip away at corners. Wind turbines and solar panels power the city.
Refabricators condense dust and rocks into bricks that absorbs the atmospheric radiation. There are even pocket parks, encapsulated with trees and plants inside to generate oxygen for the populous.
“One thing that surprised me about the moon was all the hazards and things,” Gerich said. “Even though it doesn’t have an atmosphere, it has things equal to what earth has basically.”
The team spent an entire semester working on the project. In addition to spending time in class (Crestview Middle offers Future City as an elective), they also came in during their lunch and study hall periods.
When Crestview Schools went remote between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the girls used FaceTime to stay in touch and swapped materials during basketball practice.
“We pretty much found whatever we could around the house and in our school and we brought it in,” Belcher said. “We brought in more than we needed, but it was good to have options. I think with what we had, we did a really good job using it.”
“We all got quarantined a few times and that was rough. Some were at school, some were at home or we weren’t allowed to be together.”
Jennifer Blackledge, the computer science teacher at Crestview, eventually obtained permission from the school principal for the girls to come into school to continue working as long as they weren’t in quarantine.
“They were very determined,” Blackledge said. “They were like, ‘Sports teams are still coming in, and we’re a competition team too.’ So they validated being able to come in and work in here.”
That wasn’t the case for some other schools in the competition. Blackledge said that 27 Ohio schools had teams participating at the beginning of the school year, but only six schools had teams complete the project.
“As accommodating as the organizers were for COVID and online learning, it was certainly quite an achievement to even finish,” Blackledge said.
The girls faced an extra hurdle when Gerich felt under the weather and had to quarantine right before their video presentation was due. She recorded her bits of the presentation from home and emailed them to her partners, who edited the video together.
Meanwhile, Humrichouser tried time and again to create an independent moving part — one of the project’s most difficult requirements.
“I had to make it spin so it took many trials and errors. I had to make the main part out of straws and cardboard and then add rocks to it to add weight and then take out some if it was too heavy, just to get it the perfect spinning speed,” she said.
“I started at the beginning of building our city and I didn’t finish it till the day that we had to send them the video of the presentation.”
In addition to designing, building and presenting their city, the team also had to prepare a slide presentation and a lengthy essay. The girls were more than prepared.
“They had to do a 1,500-word essay, which is usually pretty intimidating, but working together and having done all the research ahead of time, their first draft came out to 2,500 words,” Blackledge said.
Blackledge has taught the Future City class at Crestview for six years, but said she functions more as an advisor than a teacher. Students do their own research and test out their own ideas, tweaking their cities along the way.
The winner of this year’s state competition was Dublin’s Remote Learning Academy. Indian Hills Middle School of Cincinnati finished second.
Belhouserich was the first city made by Crestview students to place in the state’s top 3. Last year, a Crestview team earned 5th overall.
“This is my sixth year and it gets better and better. My groups get better and better each year,” Blackledge said. “We’re competing against some really big schools all over the state so I’m very proud of my rural school.”
