Middle school students challenged to design a future city
Students in seventh and eighth grade are signing up this month to be designers of the future in the 18th annual Philadelphia Region 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 on a national level for 18 years. The competition has been held for 15 years in the Philadelphia region.
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 calls 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 school’s 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 they 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, 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 third-place and second-place teams in the national competition win $2,000 and $5,000 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, the Philadelphia Regional Future City Competition has been represented in among the top five finalists nationally for 12 out of the 15 years it has participated.
“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.”
St. John the Evangelist School in Morrisville, Bucks County, has entered the competition for about ten years.
Fourth- through eighth-grade math teacher Alicia Rinkus heads the program there each year as a way to help students understand how math can be applied in real world situations.
The school’s team has about 27 members, and each student has a different way to contribute. At regionals, the school earned second place in 2008 and third place in 2009.
“I think they really learn a lot about how the real world works in the competition. Without it, students never really think about architecture, ways to save water in a city or ways of getting electricity to a city,” Rinkus said.
She said the activity is very popular among the school and students spend about 20 minutes daily during recess planning for Future City.
“It’s one of the most popular activities each year, and as soon as it’s over they want to talk about next year’s competition. The kids love it so much that we just do it every year,” she said.
G.A. Stetson Middle School in West Chester, Chester County, has participated in the competition for about six years and each year has 10 to 20 students on the team.
Stetson principal Le Roy Whitehead said Future City is a good learning and teamwork-building opportunity for students.
“The great thing about it is it allows students to utilize mathematics, science, engineering, writing and creativity, and realize how the separate disciplines all come together in one area,” Whitehead said.
The team, run by middle school technology education teacher Dave Kelly, meets before and after school and sometimes on weekends.
Kelly said the team often finishes in the upper middle section of regionals. Last year the team won a fire safety award for its city design elements and building materials.
“It encourages students to learn to design and apply their creative ideas. It’s amazing to see what some of the kids come up with,” Kelly said.
Our Lady Help of Christians School in Abington, Montgomery County, won first in the nation in 1999, second in the nation in 2006, and third in the nation four times in 1997, 1998, 2005 and 2008.
The team has been competing for about 14 years.
The team is led by Jane Ring, a sixth- through eighth-grade science teacher, during and after school hours.
Ring is pleased that students learn critical thinking skills, persuasion, problem-solving and team-building skills through the activity.
“We’ve really had a lot of fun. The most important thing to me is that it is real-life learning. The students make decisions, judgments and do hands-on activities,” she said.
Ring would not give away the secrets of her team’s success, but said this year the team will look into issues involving stewardship of the earth and social justice in the project, due to this year’s topic of energy conservation and affordable housing.
“I think it will be an interesting challenge this year, and it’s a wonderful topic, because it is true to life,” she said of the competition’s green building theme.
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 on a national level for 18 years. The competition has been held for 15 years in the Philadelphia region.
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 calls 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 school’s 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 they 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, 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 third-place and second-place teams in the national competition win $2,000 and $5,000 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, the Philadelphia Regional Future City Competition has been represented in among the top five finalists nationally for 12 out of the 15 years it has participated.
“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.”
St. John the Evangelist School in Morrisville, Bucks County, has entered the competition for about ten years.
Fourth- through eighth-grade math teacher Alicia Rinkus heads the program there each year as a way to help students understand how math can be applied in real world situations.
The school’s team has about 27 members, and each student has a different way to contribute. At regionals, the school earned second place in 2008 and third place in 2009.
“I think they really learn a lot about how the real world works in the competition. Without it, students never really think about architecture, ways to save water in a city or ways of getting electricity to a city,” Rinkus said.
She said the activity is very popular among the school and students spend about 20 minutes daily during recess planning for Future City.
“It’s one of the most popular activities each year, and as soon as it’s over they want to talk about next year’s competition. The kids love it so much that we just do it every year,” she said.
G.A. Stetson Middle School in West Chester, Chester County, has participated in the competition for about six years and each year has 10 to 20 students on the team.
Stetson principal Le Roy Whitehead said Future City is a good learning and teamwork-building opportunity for students.
“The great thing about it is it allows students to utilize mathematics, science, engineering, writing and creativity, and realize how the separate disciplines all come together in one area,” Whitehead said.
The team, run by middle school technology education teacher Dave Kelly, meets before and after school and sometimes on weekends.
Kelly said the team often finishes in the upper middle section of regionals. Last year the team won a fire safety award for its city design elements and building materials.
“It encourages students to learn to design and apply their creative ideas. It’s amazing to see what some of the kids come up with,” Kelly said.
Our Lady Help of Christians School in Abington, Montgomery County, won first in the nation in 1999, second in the nation in 2006, and third in the nation four times in 1997, 1998, 2005 and 2008.
The team has been competing for about 14 years.
The team is led by Jane Ring, a sixth- through eighth-grade science teacher, during and after school hours.
Ring is pleased that students learn critical thinking skills, persuasion, problem-solving and team-building skills through the activity.
“We’ve really had a lot of fun. The most important thing to me is that it is real-life learning. The students make decisions, judgments and do hands-on activities,” she said.
Ring would not give away the secrets of her team’s success, but said this year the team will look into issues involving stewardship of the earth and social justice in the project, due to this year’s topic of energy conservation and affordable housing.
“I think it will be an interesting challenge this year, and it’s a wonderful topic, because it is true to life,” she said of the competition’s green building theme.
For more information check out www.futurecityphilly.org.
