Lucerne Valley Virtual Academy grades 3-4 team members display their 2nd place MEEC award. Photo courtesy Mary Eller
A pair of teams from Lucerne Valley Virtual Academy each took second place in their respective divisions at the 2025 Environmental Maker Faire, which was held at Daisy Gibson School in Palmdale on March 1st. The Lucerne Valley teams — one comprised of third- and fourth-graders and the other of fifth- and sixth-graders — participated in the Sustainable City team competition. This year’s competition challenge theme was “Desert Oasis Surviving and Thriving.”
Each team was given criteria for creating a sustainable town with no outside help. They had to create power, water, food, recreation, etc. They wrote an essay and constructed a model that was presented to the judges. Competing teams were tasked to design their version of a sustainable city that features a resilient power grid that can withstand and quickly recover from a natural disaster.
The Lucerne Valley Virtual Academy teams each received $200 for their second place finishes.
The 5-6th grade team for the Virtual Academy also won their division's 2nd place award for their “Desert Oasis Surviving and Thriving" project. Photo courtesy Mary Eller
THE DETAILS
The Lucerne Valley teams included “fog harvesting” as part of their designs for thriving in a desert climate. To capture moisture from fog a mesh is hung between poles and when fog — or any moisture rich cloud comes through — droplets form. Then the water is led into storage tanks via pipes. Already fog has been harvested successfully in the Sahara Desert. The students also included solar panels, vegetation, and special farming techniques in dry climates to create sustainable cities in the desert. Lights are solar powered, an oasis is included, and housing was made on a side of a hill. The students also envision a water park, creative food harvesting and more.
The Annual Environmental Maker Faire, which is sponsored by the Mojave Environmental Education Consortium (MEEC), brings together students in grades 3-12, along with their teachers. On the day of the event, teams spent the day rotating through the Maker arena and engaging with experts to ignite their creativity, innovation, and inner inventor as they learn how to create and visualize solutions to real world environmental problems while having fun with hands-on activities. Topics focused on “green” themes such as air quality, transportation, geology and mining, local watersheds and more.
CRUNCHLABS PROJECT
On March 19th, the Virtual Academy students expanded their STEM skills by putting together the new “build box” project by Crunchlabs, the company headed by STEM personality/engineer Mark Rober. The project this time was the “Mirror Bank,” which utilizes a mirror to prank unsuspecting participants.The students, many with a family member on hand to help in the fun, first put the box “bank” together and mounted a special mirror with a large, scary — but harmless — rubber spider inside. Participants who inserted a coin into the bank were in for an unexpected, fun experience.
A family works on the recent Crunchlabs "build box" during the in-person class day on March 19th. Photo by Peter Day
The following are upcoming important dates for Lucerne Valley Virtual Academy:
April
April 16 — Egg Drop Competition 1 p.m.
(No Zoom meetings)
April 18nd Carnival
May 26 — Memorial Day -21 — Easter Break
May
May 14, 2025 — Raingutter Regatta 1 p.m.
(No Zoom meetings)
May 21 — Year- End Awards & Celebration
May 22 — LVES Year-E Holiday
May 28 — Last Day of School
Lucerne Valley Virtual Academy was founded by the Lucerne Valley Unified School District in 2020 to give families a home-based, computer-based education option during the COVID pandemic. Due to its popularity, the program continues and today educates more than 50 students in grades K-12. Veteran teachers Mary Eller and Cindy Lazenby teach the elementary and middle/high school grades, respectively.
For more information on the Mojave Environmental Education Consortium, visit https://meeconline.com/
Virtual Academy - March 2025 photo gallery