A team of Walnut Elementary Education Center students finished in second place out of more than 100 schools competing in the Future City Competition's Northern California Regional State Finals, held in San Jose last Saturday.

Another Stanislaus County team, Modesto Girl Scout Troop #2225 took home first place. In total 12 teams competed from Stanislaus County.

Troop #2225 will advance to the national finals in Washington D.C., to be held Feb. 16-22. Walnut's second place does not qualify the team to attend the national finals.

“It’s so exciting that of all the teams participating from Northern California, first and second place went to teams from Stanislaus County,” said Cheryl Goulart, Event Coordinator for the countywide competition. “This is the fourth consecutive year that a team from Stanislaus County will represent Northern California at the national competition.”

The Future City Competition directs teams to create tabletop models of how they envision future cities, after finding solutions using simulation software. This year’s theme was “Tomorrow’s Transit: Design A Way To Move People In And Around Your City.“

The 3D Future City models are constructed from recycled materials and built for less than $100.

Future City entries are judged on five components: the virtual city design, a research essay, city narrative, model and team presentation. Scores from all five components are added together to determine the top teams.

“Bymum” was the name of the imaginary city created by 6th grade students from Walnut Elementary School. Student presenters for the team included: Sean Bernard, Dion Skaria, and Edward Yaco. Additional students that assisted included Cooper Bowen, Gaby Bravo, Joe Carlsen, Cooper Carr, Noah Cossey, Ainslie Coughran, Ibrahim Dahger, Hayden Feldman, Elizabeth Gonsalves, Marcus Hawley, Maxwell Lee, Aunika Light, Vince Mann, Joseph Martin, Brock Paslay, Makaila Ramsey, Jesse Singh, Eli Smith, Jackson Thomas, and Graysen Yonano. Teacher Jamie Garner served as the coach, and Mike Pitcock and Raul Raya served as professional mentors.

Other Turlock schools that competed in Future City included Sacred Heart School, CSU Stanislaus HIMAP, Dutcher Middle School and Turlock Junior High.