Teeland wins design contest again

WASILLA — Teeland Middle School’s design team has again taken first place in the state and regional levels of the “School of the Future” competition and will represent Alaska at the international level of the competition April 24 to 27 in Washington, D.C. But the team has a lot of fundraising to do first. Last year, the team raised more than $12,000 to travel to the contest.

“Just showing them how much work we put into this made me really happy that they picked us to represent the Pacific Northwest Region,” team member Kea Bekkadahl said.

Last year, Teeland’s design team won the top prize in the international contest to design an environmentally friendly dream school. Students selected for this after-school event worked on in-depth research, computer modeling, writing a presentation and building a physical model of their idea.

“This competition really showed me what our future looks like right now, and what we can to do change that,” said Sophie Miller, a Teeland eighth-grader and one of the team’s four student presenters. “In the future, schools will be much more inspiring places than they are now.”

With help from community mentors like Architects Alaska architect Anna Lee, Cindy Neubauer and Jill Warner, the students designed a school that was both sustainable and community minded.

Students named their hypothetical school Aurora Outreach Middle School. This name represented both the Alaska theme and how the school would reach out into the local community. Students decided that Aurora Outreach would have a positive community impact, like helping to provide housing for the more than 180 unaccompanied youth in the Mat-Su Borough School District.

“We had a dormitory for homeless students to stay in year-round,” Bekkadahl said.

The students also arranged for Christian Hills, an expert on homeless youth, to discuss the potential benefits of such a facility.

Community features, however, were just one piece of the students’ project. Other sustainable and environmental features such as green roofs, zero carbon energy and a food producing living machine created a building concept that would have as little environmental impact as possible.

“Good schools sustain themselves,” Miller said.

Alaska teams have been very successful in this event sponsored by the Council of Educational Facility Planners International. Two years ago, Barnett Middle School from Fairbanks won first place at the international level of the competition. Last year, Teeland took home that honor.

Teeland seventh-grader Dylan Blohm worked on the team’s scale model and said he thinks winning has opened the door to more exciting parts of the project. “Because we won, we can put more fun stuff into the model.”

So what has given Teeland its winning edge?

“I think it was a combination of incorporating (Alaska) Native culture, blending in physically with the land, and sustainability,” Miller said.

Other students said that the team’s commitment to the project explained its potency.

“We were working every Saturday and almost every day of the week,” Bekkadahl said.

Passion, hard work, and curiosity have allowed these students to excel as a team for two years.

Now they must face the daunting task of fundraising for the next leg of their journey, to Washington, D.C.

“The students need the recognition they so deserve,” said team administrator Jill Warner. “Part of that is through recognition, monitory support and part of it is just a good pat on the back.”

“These kids are our future,” she says.

If you would like to give support, send donations to Teeland Middle School, specifying its use for the design team.

The design team’s motto this year — H.O.P.E. (helping our people and environment) — was created by Teeland seventh-grader Alex Neubauer.

Zachary J.K. Neubauer is a sophomore at the Mat-Su Career and Technical High School.