Team Neoterra Takes Second Place at State Competition

Morganton Day School 6th-8th Graders traveled to Raleigh to compete in the Future City regional competition. Forty-three middle school teams from across the state gathered to share their city model and innovative ideas for this year’s challenge: Design a floating city and provide two innovative examples of how your floating city works and keeps its citizens healthy and safe.

The students imagined what the world could be like in one hundred years and wrote an essay describing their futuristic city. They submitted a project plan, created a scale model, and developed a seven-minute presentation. On Saturday, January 25, our students traveled to Raleigh. Throughout the competition, they spoke confidently with judges and engineers to describe their fully developed solution. They showed incredible knowledge and innovation as they expressed their plans for infrastructure and feasibility based on their chosen location in the world.

After lunch, the MDS team waited with anticipation as the top three teams were announced. Neoterra, Morganton Day School, took the stage! All of the teams and hundreds of parents gathered to receive specialty awards and watch the presentations of the top three teams. After an outstanding presentation and rigorous questions from some of the top engineers in the state, Neoterra became the North Carolina Future City State competition second-place winner!

Morganton Day School students demonstrated research skills, communication skills, social skills, thinking skills, and self-management as they prepared for and proudly represented our school on Saturday. This outstanding team not only came home with a second-place win, but with a specialty award recognizing their resilient design to mitigate and provide relief for natural disasters. Overall, the students were awarded $1,250, which will go toward our STEAM program. Congratulations Neoterra!