Middle school students entrusted with designing a future city
This month, students in seventh and eighth grade are signing up to be designers of the future in the 18th annual Philadelphia Regional Future City Competition.
The competition encourages students to participate in a challenge where they are required to create virtual cities that are energy and cost efficient through SimCity 4 Deluxe software and a scale model made from recycled materials.
The engineering educational program focuses on promoting science, technology, engineering and math education, and has been held for 15 years. The competition has been held for 18 years nationally.
About 650 students from 37 different schools entered the competition last year in the Philadelphia area, and about 30,000 students entered nationally.
Philadelphia Regional Future City coordinator and engineer John Kampmeyer called the competition a way to introduce an engineering curriculum at the middle school level. One of the goals of the competition, he said, is to get students interested in the engineering field. Actual engineers partner with the schools’ teams to mentor students throughout the process.
Students work in teams ranging from three to 30 students to create their working virtual metropolis through SimCity.
The cities students create can be located anywhere in the universe, must have a minimum of 50,000 residents, and are set in 2020 or later.
For the regional competition, which includes participants in Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, each school selects three students to present their city to judges. Only one regional team advances (no comma) and takes an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C., where the national competition is held.
At regionals, the top six schools receive a monetary prize ranging from $400 to $750, and about 40 sponsors honor remaining schools with special award categories.
The second-place and third-place teams in the national competition win $5,000 and $2,000 scholarships, respectively, for their school’s tech programs. The top team wins a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala.
To enter, schools are provided with the SimCity software at no cost and a set of requirements. In addition to creating the virtual model, students are required to write an essay on sustainable housing, build a scale model of the city using recycled materials, and prepare a seven-minute presentation for the judges.
The judging panel is made up of engineers, city planners, architects and corporate executives.
The regional competition will be held Jan. 23, 2010, at the Sheet Metal Workers Union on Delaware Avenue in Philadelphia.
Schools have until Oct. 31 to form Future City teams. So far, about 24 schools have signed up, and Kampmeyer expects about 15 more.
Students can only enter the competition through their schools.
According to Kampmeyer, winners of the Philadelphia Regional Future City Competition have placed among the top five finalists nationally for 12 out of the 15 years that the competition has existed.
“This is a program that will teach your students the basics of engineering and allow them to perform actual engineering tasks, develop presentation skills and work with a real engineer in doing so,” Kampmeyer said. “It is also a lot of fun.”
Students at Radnor Middle School will compete this year in the quest for a Future City. Radnor Middle School teachers and Future City advisors Andy Achenbach and Beth Zigmont are in the process of forming a team of eighth-grade students from their multidisciplinary math, science and engineering course. The class of about 40 students meets four periods out of the day and focuses on research-based and hands-on learning.
This is the third year Radnor is participating in the competition. In the past, at the regional level, the team won the Drexel University Society of Women Engineers award for its Future City.
“It’s pretty amazing what the kids produce each year, and it’s something they are able to do that other students don’t get to participate in. It’s a great way to learn about engineering by doing hands-on work,” Achenbach said.
In addition to learning about engineering through the interactive project, Radnor students will also learn about green building and engineering from local builders, school administrators and city planners who will speak to the class.
Achenbach thinks the project helps to bring out students’ artistic, presentation, writing and teamwork skills.
“SimCity is a game that a lot of students have played before, and it allows them to have the creativity and freedom to create a city design,” he said.
Drexel Hill Middle School will also be entering this year’s Future City competition.
According to the school’s Future City advisor, George Hight, in the 11 years that the school has participated, it placed first in the region three times and third in nationals two times.
Hight is a gifted-support seminar and engineering teacher at Drexel Hill Middle School and thinks the Future City competition is a good engineering teaching tool for students. The district offers engineering programs to students in middle and high school.
“The school district believes strongly in trying to promote engineering opportunities for students. We want students to be aware of the opportunities that are available to them,” Hight said.
To prepare for the competition, the roughly 25 engineering seminar students will break into teams to decide and present to the class a location for their future city and the city’s means of transportation, power, infrastructure, health care and government.
Hight called the project challenging, and he said it requires a high caliber of teamwork and communication skills from students.
“A lot of cooperation goes into making the whole project come together. Teamwork, planning and research are all skills we want them to get out of this,” he said. For more information check out www.futurecityphilly.org.
The competition encourages students to participate in a challenge where they are required to create virtual cities that are energy and cost efficient through SimCity 4 Deluxe software and a scale model made from recycled materials.
The engineering educational program focuses on promoting science, technology, engineering and math education, and has been held for 15 years. The competition has been held for 18 years nationally.
About 650 students from 37 different schools entered the competition last year in the Philadelphia area, and about 30,000 students entered nationally.
Philadelphia Regional Future City coordinator and engineer John Kampmeyer called the competition a way to introduce an engineering curriculum at the middle school level. One of the goals of the competition, he said, is to get students interested in the engineering field. Actual engineers partner with the schools’ teams to mentor students throughout the process.
Students work in teams ranging from three to 30 students to create their working virtual metropolis through SimCity.
The cities students create can be located anywhere in the universe, must have a minimum of 50,000 residents, and are set in 2020 or later.
For the regional competition, which includes participants in Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, each school selects three students to present their city to judges. Only one regional team advances (no comma) and takes an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C., where the national competition is held.
At regionals, the top six schools receive a monetary prize ranging from $400 to $750, and about 40 sponsors honor remaining schools with special award categories.
The second-place and third-place teams in the national competition win $5,000 and $2,000 scholarships, respectively, for their school’s tech programs. The top team wins a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala.
To enter, schools are provided with the SimCity software at no cost and a set of requirements. In addition to creating the virtual model, students are required to write an essay on sustainable housing, build a scale model of the city using recycled materials, and prepare a seven-minute presentation for the judges.
The judging panel is made up of engineers, city planners, architects and corporate executives.
The regional competition will be held Jan. 23, 2010, at the Sheet Metal Workers Union on Delaware Avenue in Philadelphia.
Schools have until Oct. 31 to form Future City teams. So far, about 24 schools have signed up, and Kampmeyer expects about 15 more.
Students can only enter the competition through their schools.
According to Kampmeyer, winners of the Philadelphia Regional Future City Competition have placed among the top five finalists nationally for 12 out of the 15 years that the competition has existed.
“This is a program that will teach your students the basics of engineering and allow them to perform actual engineering tasks, develop presentation skills and work with a real engineer in doing so,” Kampmeyer said. “It is also a lot of fun.”
Students at Radnor Middle School will compete this year in the quest for a Future City. Radnor Middle School teachers and Future City advisors Andy Achenbach and Beth Zigmont are in the process of forming a team of eighth-grade students from their multidisciplinary math, science and engineering course. The class of about 40 students meets four periods out of the day and focuses on research-based and hands-on learning.
This is the third year Radnor is participating in the competition. In the past, at the regional level, the team won the Drexel University Society of Women Engineers award for its Future City.
“It’s pretty amazing what the kids produce each year, and it’s something they are able to do that other students don’t get to participate in. It’s a great way to learn about engineering by doing hands-on work,” Achenbach said.
In addition to learning about engineering through the interactive project, Radnor students will also learn about green building and engineering from local builders, school administrators and city planners who will speak to the class.
Achenbach thinks the project helps to bring out students’ artistic, presentation, writing and teamwork skills.
“SimCity is a game that a lot of students have played before, and it allows them to have the creativity and freedom to create a city design,” he said.
Drexel Hill Middle School will also be entering this year’s Future City competition.
According to the school’s Future City advisor, George Hight, in the 11 years that the school has participated, it placed first in the region three times and third in nationals two times.
Hight is a gifted-support seminar and engineering teacher at Drexel Hill Middle School and thinks the Future City competition is a good engineering teaching tool for students. The district offers engineering programs to students in middle and high school.
“The school district believes strongly in trying to promote engineering opportunities for students. We want students to be aware of the opportunities that are available to them,” Hight said.
To prepare for the competition, the roughly 25 engineering seminar students will break into teams to decide and present to the class a location for their future city and the city’s means of transportation, power, infrastructure, health care and government.
Hight called the project challenging, and he said it requires a high caliber of teamwork and communication skills from students.
“A lot of cooperation goes into making the whole project come together. Teamwork, planning and research are all skills we want them to get out of this,” he said. For more information check out www.futurecityphilly.org.
