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ESD
Michigan Regional
Future City Competition
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Rock Financial Showplace, Novi, MI
What is the Future City Competition?
The Future City Competition challenges students to design a city
of the future - and have fun doing it. This program was designed
to promote technological literacy and engineering to seventh and
eighth grade students. The program fosters an interest in math,
science and engineering through hands-on, real world applications
and helps students better understand the practical applications
of mathematical and scientific principles.
The Future City Competition is a team-based program consisting
of students, a teacher, and an engineer mentor. Throughout the competition,
students learn to apply their knowledge to real-world situations,
while seeing first hand how an engineer turns ideas into reality.
Through participation in this program, students develop their problem-solving
skills, as well as their ability to work as a team. They learn how
to conduct research and develop their presentation skills. As they
begin to design and build their city, the team members apply various
math and scientific principles to address practical problems, thereby
increasing their awareness of community related issues.
The Michigan Regional Future City Competition is part of a national
program sponsored by the National Engineers Week Committee. The
Engineering Society of Detroit coordinates all aspects of Michigan's
competition. National Engineers Week seeks to increase public awareness
and appreciation of the engineering profession and technology by
emphasizing the engineer’s positive contributions to society.
The Future City Competition continues to demonstrate a strong impact
on professional career development. Since the competition began,
educators and engineering communities have recognized it as an innovative
learning program. The White House, Congress and national engineering
and construction media have also recognized this educational program.
Who can participate?
The Michigan Regional Future City Competition is open to 7th and
8th grade students in all public, private and parochial middle and
junior high schools in Michigan . The Competition is team-based,
each team consisting of at least three students, a teacher and an
engineer-mentor. A team can include a whole class or as few as three
students.
When is the Competition?
Teams begin working on their cities when school starts in the
fall.
The Michigan Regional Competition will be January 22, 2008.
In February, the winning team from each region competes at the
national finals in Washington, DC. Each winning team (three students,
teacher, mentor) receives an expense-paid trip to Washington,
DC, to compete in these finals.
The Challenge: Design and Build a City of the Future
The city must display residential, commercial and industrial areas,
power plants, transportation systems, community services and communication
systems. Other issues that must be addressed are environmental controls,
traffic density, taxes and operating budgets.
Students will:
- Work as team under the guidance of an engineer and a teacher
- Develop a project plan to guide team activities
- Use SimCity software to design their city.
- Demonstrate writing skills through a 300–500-word abstract
explaining their city design and a 500–700 essay. The
topic is "Keeping Our City's Infrastructure Healthy: Using
Nanotechnology to Monitor City Structures and Systems."
- Build a city model using recycled materials
- Enhance communications skills through a team presentation
Why are Engineer Mentors Needed?
The volunteer engineer-mentor is an integral part of the Future
City Team. This competition underscores the engineer’s expertise
and the skills necessary for the planning and development of our
cities of the future. Participants learn how engineers turn ideas
into reality and apply their knowledge to real world situations.
Throughout the Future City Competition, engineer mentors work
with student teams as they design and build their city of the
future. The engineer is involved in all phases of the competition
as an advisor, providing input and technical assistance to students.
Students must do all of the actual work from designing of the
city on the computer to writing an essay, building a tabletop
model and giving a verbal presentation. Engineers typically must
spend at least 40 hours with their team between September and
January. Engineers can mentor singly or as a group. Working with
students, helping them harness their enthusiasm and channel their
ideas into a coherent city is a truly rewarding experience.
The Engineering Society of Detroit matches engineers with school
teams. Interested engineers can volunteer by contacting Ron Smith
at 248-353-0735, ext. 4148 or rsmith@esd.org.
Please download a Mentor Information
& Sign-Up Form.
How Can Future City Be Tied Into the Curriculum?
The National Engineers Week Future City Competition affords an
excellent opportunity for applying elements of math, science, computer
science, social studies, language arts, and art curricula to hands-on
projects that capture the imagination and stoke the creative problem-solving
abilities of students in seventh and eighth grades.
A chart matching Future City deliverables to learning objectives
can be found at http://www.futurecity.org.
How Future City meets national standards can be found at the same
Web site.
You may choose to use this program as part of a team teaching effort
to complement lessons in any one of the math, science computer science,
social studies, language arts and art curricula, or as part of an
after school club activity.
How Can I Sign Up?
You can register on line at http://www.futurecity.org/register/
Mentoring, Judging, Special Awards & Other Information:
For more information, contact Ron Smith at 248-353-0735,
ext. 4148, or rsmith@esd.org.
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ABSTRACTS & ESSAYS
You must submit a 300-500 word
abstract that describes your city's design features and
key attributes. See the Teacher & Engineer Mentor Handbook.
The top five abstracts
from the 2006 Michigan Regional Future City Competition
follow:
You must submit a 500 - 700 word
Research Essay. The Research Essay explores and develops
a brief and focused engineering feasibility plan as related
to an identified redevelopment land tract within the students'
future city. Plan will include availability of water and
sewer utilities, transportation access and soil analysis.
The research essay must include several references. For additional
information, see the Teacher and Engineer Mentor Handbook
p. A13, A43, A65, B59.
The top five essays for
the 2006 Michigan Regional Future City Competition follow:
The essay, abstract and
Essay Form (A43) are due on December 20, 2007.
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