Student Davyd Umanets, their teacher Sara Opeyany, and fellow project team members student Diamond Klaner-Swaffar and Madison Klaner-Swaffar at last month’s Citrus Heights Tools of the Trade in Van Maren Park. Their futuristic city featured a small Hot Wheel’s sized robotic vehicle that was specially coded to “drive” within the limits of their 4-by-8 foot model community.” Photo courtesy of the San Juan Unified School District

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - Individual teams of seventh- and eighth-grade students at Lichen K-8 School in Citrus Heights applied both their imagination and their creativity over three individual trimesters this past school year to design and create their vision of an eco-friendly model city of tomorrow.

Using recycled materials, students in Science, Technology, English and Math (STEM) classes, guided by their teacher, Sara Opeyany, built 11 model cities in the school’s Maker’s Space, each complete with roads, buildings and landscaping details all scratch built from a wide range of recycled materials, including paper collected on campus.

Teacher Sara Opeyany points to a model helicopter on the rooftop of one of the buildings her students constructed.

One of the highly-detailed model cities which her students built was featured at the Citrus Heights Tools of the Trade event last month in Van Maren Park. This futuristic city featured a small Hot Wheel’s sized robotic vehicle that was specially coded by the students to “drive” within the limits of their 4-by-8 foot model community, Opeyany said.

Opeyany shared examples of three model cities which her students completed before the school year recently ended.

At Lichen School, proud home of the Lichen Bears, the model cities that Opeyany’s students built featured much more than the simple “bear necessities” of life.

Team members made bright trees to surround their swimming pool where rival basketball legend LeBron James might want to cool off. Popsicle sticks and toothpicks were used to make benches and a decorated taco truck, roof raised, is ready to serve their first customers.

Her last-trimester students faced a reduced timeframe to complete their cities than her other classes, due to the requirements of state academic testing but adapted to the challenge.

The robotic component to code a vehicle to drive was dropped due to the time constraint.

“They began by learning how to fold a piece of paper into a square cube, which is a lot harder than it looks,” Opeyany said. “Once they accomplished that task, they then got to work creating scale blueprints for each model city and its individual streets.”

Police and fire stations, hospitals, schools and municipal buildings of all types were then placed.

Street measurement markings were visible on some portions of one city where roads were initially placed and then revised.

“It was entirely up to them to design, build and place the individual buildings they created to reflect the individual public services they wanted their city to contain,” Opeyany said. 

Team members who built MJ Ville in recognition of Chicago Bulls basketball star Michael Jordan, built a swimming pool and diving board in the center of their model city. 

The construction process was a journey, according to Opeyany.

From there, the building “blocks” of city buildings could be formed.

Many of the buildings that the students created reflected a general sense of whimsy, such as placing a photo of a favorite teacher behind bars in the city jail, naming their city after their favorite professional basketball player, LeBron James, or artfully building a colorful Skittles tree in the center of their city named for their favorite snack.

One student project team drew a complete air conditioning system with duct work on each individual roof within the city.

“These are the engineers, architects, contractors and builders of tomorrow,” Opeyany said. “I sensed that they came away from these model city projects with a greater sense of personal possibility for the trade careers which they may one day consider in their adult lives. And they found considerable satisfaction in building something with their hands for the first time, using mathematics in a practical, problem-solving way.”

In addition to municipal buildings and Skittle High School, team members also included realistic models of In-N-Out, Costco and PetCo in their city.

Opeyany said she’s looking forward to teaching the Science, Technology, English and Math (STEM) class to her students in the fall. Lichen K-8 School’s designated “Maker’s Space” also has a 3-D model printer which the teacher hopes to utilize for future student projects.

Founder of two students’ clubs, Students of Color and the Upstanders Club, Opeyany was one of six honorees of the San Juan Unified School District at its recent 12th annual Spirit of San Juan awards ceremony for “exhibiting exceptional character, removing barriers and providing an inclusive environment for all.”