Future City Competition

Future City Competition is a national competition in the United States that focuses on improving students' math, engineering, and science skills. The program is open to students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades who attend a public, private or home school.

Not to be confused with Future Cities, one of the UK's Catapult centres.

The Future City Competition is an example of problem-based learning with computer simulation, in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. The program asks 6th, 7th and 8th grade students from around the nation to team with engineer-volunteer mentors to create – first on computer and then in three-dimensional models – their visions of the city of tomorrow. A program of the DiscoverE organization, it has been operating since 1992 and currently serves over 40,000 students.[1]

Aims

The aim of the Future City Competition is to provide an exciting educational engineering program for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students that combines a stimulating engineering challenge with an inquiry-based application to present their vision of a city of the future.

Benefits

The Future City Competition provides a platform for students to increase their:

  • Ability to work in teams,
  • Research and technical writing,
  • Oral presentation skills,
  • Application of coursework to practical problems,
  • An awareness of community and business issues on the local and global levels.

National Academic Content Standards

The Future City Competition components are strongly aligned with many national educational standards relating to STEM fields.

State Academic Content Standards

State Academic Standards are based on the National Academic Standards.

Team members represent their ideas and proposals in several ways:

  • Essay about the yearly theme (for example, the theme of the 2016–17 competition is the "Power of Public Space" where students are challenged to design a Future City that includes a distributed network of innovative, multi-use public spaces that serves their city's diverse population).[2]
  • A City Narrative discussing their city's attributes, features, and main concepts.
  • A Physical Model to show a physical representation of their city. The model is to consist of as many recycled materials as possible, and must cost less than 100 dollars.
  • Computer Design using Sim City software.
  • Presentation to describe their city to the judges on the day of the competition.

Awards and prizes

Teams that win their Regional Competitions advance to the National Finals. Teams competing at the National Finals have the opportunity to win the following prizes:

2006–2007 National Competition[3]

Theme: Fuel Cells

  • 1st Place: St. Thomas More School – Louisiana
  • 2nd Place: Nevada Christian Home School – Nevada (Northern)
  • 3rd Place: Helen Keller Middle School – Michigan

2007–2008 National Competition[3]

Theme: Urban Disasters

  • 1st Place: Heritage Middle School – Westerville, Ohio
  • 2nd Place: Farnsworth Middle School – New York Albany
  • 3rd Place: Our Lady Help of Christians School – Philadelphia

2008–2009 National Competition[3]

Theme: Water

  • 1st Place: Bexley Middle School – Ohio
  • 2nd Place: St. Thomas More – Louisiana
  • 3rd Place: St. Thomas the Apostle – Florida (South)

2009–2010 National Competition[3]
  • 1st Place: Davidson IB Middle School – North Carolina
  • 2nd Place: Valley Middle School – New Jersey
  • 3rd Place: Northern Nevada Home School – Nevada (Northern)

2013–2014 National Competition[3]

Theme: Tomorrow's Transit

  • 1st Place: St. John Lutheran School – Michigan
  • 2nd Place: Valley Middle School – New Jersey
  • 3rd Place: HEAR Rockwall Homeschool – Texas (North)

2014–2015 National Competition[3]

Theme: Feeding Future Cities

  • 1st Place: St. John Lutheran School – Michigan
  • 2nd Place: West Ridge Middle School – Austin, Texas
  • 3rd Place: Academy for Science and Foreign Language – Huntsville, Alabama

2015–2016 National Competition[3]

Theme: Waste Not, Want Not

  • 1st Place: Academy for Science and Foreign Language – Huntsville, Alabama
  • 2nd Place: Harbor View Academy – Texas (North)
  • 3rd Place: St. John Lutheran School – Michigan

2016-2017 National Competition[4]

This year was the 25th anniversary of the Future City competition with the year's theme being "The Power of Public Space"

  • 1st Place: West Ridge Middle School - Austin, Texas

2017-2018 National Competition[5]

Theme: Age Friendly Cities

  • 1st Place: Edlin School - Reston, VA

2018-2019[6]

Theme: Powering our Future

  • 1st Place: Warwick Middle School - Lititz, PA
  • 2nd Place: Academy for Science and Foreign Language - Huntsville, Alabama
  • 3rd Place: JerseySTEM - New Jersey Region
  • 4th Place: Sacred Heart Catholic School - Idaho Region
  • 5th Place: Edlin School - Mid-Atlantic Region

References
  1. http://futurecity.org/page/our-impact
  2. http://futurecity.org/resource/2016-2017-program-handbook
  3. "Future City Competition". futurecity.org. Retrieved 2017-02-19.
  4. "West Ridge Middle School from Austin, Texas Wins Grand Prize At 25th Annual Future City® Competition". Future City Competition. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  5. "Edlin School from Mid-Atlantic Region Wins Grand Prize At 26th Annual Future City® Competition Winning School Hails From Reston, VA". Future City Competition. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  6. "Warwick Middle School from Central Pennsylvania Region Wins Grand Prize At 27th Annual Future City® Competition Winning School Hails From Lititz, PA". Future City Competition. 19 February 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
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