Photos

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Four middle-school students, lit by three floodlights, face two video cameras and one imposing panel of jurors. A young man takes a breath and a small step forward, and speaks.

It can't be easy, but Alex Kashtan and the other kids from Connecticut's Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School seem prepared, confident and, frankly, professional. They stand up straight, look jurors in the eye and refer to slides and a detailed scale model as they switch seamlessly from speaker to speaker while describing their unusual class project – a school they designed for the School of the Future competition, centerpiece of the Council of Educational Facility Planners International's School Building Week, an annual event hosted by CEFPI, the National Association of Realtors, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the American Federation of Teachers and more than 35 associations and private companies.

Green Designs Earn Greenbacks

Students in the School of the Future design classrooms, additions, renovations or entire schools with the goal of improving learning, conserving resources, being sensitive to the environment and engaging the surrounding community. Classes and teams across the country use a curriculum that teaches math and its practical applications while also developing language, communication, leadership skills and teaching architecture, science and facility planning. Local architecture, engineering and planning professionals served as resources and mentors for each class. Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School's grand prize entry won the team $2,000 from the National Association of Realtors. Norwalk Middle School, Norwalk, Iowa, won second place and $1,500 for a proposal that included a domed central building walled entirely in stained glass and surrounded by four, four-level pods. The school featured solar power, recycled materials, and glass-walled beach, ocean, temperate rainforest and tropical rainforest "biomes." Imago Dei Middle School won third place and $1,000 for a plan that envisioned building on an actual vacant lot in Tucson, Arizona. Their school would include a community garden, rammed-earth construction, a sun-filled community worship room and a fence made of found objects – built with the help of local artists. Olympic View Middle School, Mulkiteo, Washington, won $500 for a design that catches and reuses rainwater, places a green, rooftop lab atop the science building and features bamboo floors and straw insulation in buildings surrounding a central courtyard. The Gereau Center, Rocky Mount, Virginia, won $500 for a presentation that featured a sophisticated, 3-D, streaming computer model, extensive use of natural light, geothermal heating and cooling, solar power and recycled water for toilets and urinals. Westland Middle School, Bethesda, Maryland, won $500 for designing a "living classroom" that featured plastic walls, hydroponically grown plants, an entire wall that slides open and a grass floor.

Senator Lieberman with students from Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School, Old Lyme, Connecticut – Award of Excellence

The Lyme-Old Lyme team is one of six regional champions – out of more than 1,500 original entries – brought to Washington, D.C. in May to present their work to an 18-person panel of heavy hitters from the worlds of education, architecture, engineering, planning, building and real estate.

And the middle-schoolers' proposal is impressive. It includes:

• Geothermal heating and cooling supplemented by solar panels, miniature wind turbines and a passive solar design. "Which is great for using the building as an emergency shelter, because it's off the grid," says Alex, who also showed off a working model of his design for the "hydro gutter," which would turn the power of rainwater pouring off school roofs into electricity.
• Recycled building materials, a green roof, a recycling center, a composting center (near the cafeteria, of course) and a garden that would use stored rainwater runoff to grow vegetables for school lunches.
• A virtual-reality "experience room," trapezoidal desks that can be combined to make different shapes for different purposes and a plan to outfit every student with a handcrank- powered laptop computer.

Olympic View Middle School, Mukilteo, Washington – Award of Commendation

It all looks and sounds good to the judges. CEFPI exists, after all, to increase public awareness of the importance of well-planned, healthy, high-performing, safe and sustainable school buildings that enhance student performance and contribute to community vitality.

But it isn't just the eco-friendly and learning-friendly design that gets the attention of the note-taking, question-asking jurors.

Norwalk Middle School, Norwalk, Iowa – Award of Distinction

There is also the attention to detail. Team members calculated square footage, asked their school nurse what special features she needed in her office and remembered to include a storage room for the auditorium.

And the teamwork. Each team member put about 50 after-school hours into the project. They included classmates and the community in their planning, then divided up research, design and presentation jobs.

The Gereau Center, Rocky Mount, Virginia – Award of Commendation

And the enthusiasm. The Lyme-Old Lyme students got so excited about green technology and sustainability that they started a school garden club and designed and distributed a pamphlet encouraging their whole community to switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs.

After Alex and teammates Ally McCarthy, Emily Powers and Hallie Hallman wrapped up their presentation, they were asked a question they didn't expect.

"Ever been to Los Angeles?" asked Guy Mehula, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. "Because we're building lots of schools. Do you want jobs?"

The kids probably need to get through high school and college before they get those jobs, of course, but they did win first prize and $2,000 – scoring a repeat for their school, which also sent 2007's winning team to Washington.

The long day of judging left CEFPI President Merle Kirkley feeling good about the next wave of school designers, planners and builders, not just because of the contest entries themselves, but also because of the way competing students from different regions and different backgrounds quickly became friends during the School Building Week activities.

Westland Middle School, Bethesda, Maryland – Award of Commendation

"These kids are the future of the world, thanks to the social and environmental awareness we saw today," Kirkley said. "You can take students who came from strong socio-economic backgrounds and students from a tiny school that was virtually started with donations and put them all together to solve any problem. That's what they bring to this world. They know no boundaries."

The presentations included many moments to make grown-ups beam:

• Micah Arnson-Serotta of Bethesda, Maryland's Westland Middle School saying, "I think I want to be an architect."
• Allison Maybee of Norwalk, Iowa's Norwalk Middle School summing up the competition by saying, "It makes us feel good about what we can accomplish in life."
• Anthony Barcelo of Tucson's Imago Dei Middle School saying, "We messed up so many times, but we kept starting over until we got it."
• Olivia Wiebe of Mulkiteo, Washington's Olympic View Middle School saying, "This has changed how I think about leaving a smaller carbon footprint."
• Ben Lowman of Virginia's Gereau Center answering a question about what he'll take away from the experience by looking at his teammates and saying, "I'll take away friendship."
• Lyme-Old Lyme's Hallie Hallman saying, "I think we inspired other kids."

Or this from Imago Dei's Adreana Ramirez Tapia: "When we first heard about this project, we knew we were on an adventure. We had never done anything like this before. Little did we know that we would be learning about math, design, sustainability, space and light, as well as collaboration and community-building. We also learned when we work together, we can accomplish great things."

Imago Dei Middle School, Tucson, Arizona – Award of Merit

2008 School of the Future Design Competition Winners

Award of Excellence	Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School, Old Lyme, Connecticut	$2,000
Award of Distinction	Norwalk Middle School, Norwalk, Iowa	$1,500
Award of Merit	Imago Dei Middle School, Tucson, Arizona	$1,000
Award of Commendation	Olympic View Middle School, Mukilteo, Washington	$500
Award of Commendation	The Gereau Center, Rocky Mount, Virginia	$500
Award of Commendation	Westland Middle School, Bethesda, Maryland	$500