The Iowa Department of Education recently announced the winners of the Build Iowa’s Future Design Challenge, an opportunity for K-12 students to create innovative projects, connect them to careers and compete for $1,000 awards for their schools. 

Hillcrest Academy’s Plant Science class finished in third place in the 9th-12th grade division. Agriculture and Biology teacher Mike Severino-Patterson explains how he entered his students in the contest, “This was just a competition that was sent to me by email. I get a lot of those sorts of things as the FFA Advisor, I thought it would be a good thing to do with the Plant Science Class especially in the winter time. To design a building project that would help the community and the school and be educational. So after talking to them we decided on a chicken coop.” 

Hillcrest Academy students Luke Schrock, Jace Rempel, Grant Bender and Jack Endahl participated in the project receiving a monetary award of $300 for their school.

Hear more from Severino-Patterson and his students during Thursday’s JJ Nichting Company In Touch with Southeast Iowa program on air and at kciiradio.com.