September 26, 2001
ENGINEERING COMPETITION ASKS STUDENTS TO DESIGN
CITIES
THAT KEEP THE POWER FLOWING
Future
City Competition this year challenges young people to deal with
energy issues, including research, exploration, generation, conservation,
and a way to afford it.
With the start of the new school year, seventh- and eighth-graders in the Capital District are beginning work on a project that has become an annual tradition for tens of thousands of students across America: the National Engineers Week Future City CompetitionTM. Schools have until October 31 to register.
Just like students who busy themselves with sports practice or student elections, Future City participants meet in class, after school and on weekends to try to understand how to design and run a successful city of the future. First on computer, then in three-dimensional models, the competition challenges middle schoolers to think about the promise and problems of tomorrow and then respond to them with originality and ingenuity. Student teams of three under the guidance of a teacher and a volunteer engineer from the community present their city designs at one of 30 regional competitions held around the country in January. Each first place regional team wins a free trip to Washington, D.C. for national finals during National Engineers Week, February 17-23, 2002. Top prize is a trip to U.S. Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama.
Begun in 1992, the non-profit Future City Competition has grown from a few hundred students in five regions to more than 26,000 students in 25 regions in 2001. Organizers estimate that nearly 100,000 young people have participated over the past decade, making it one of the most prominent engineering outreach efforts in the country and among the largest educational programs of any kind, giving young people a window onto real-life uses of science and math. Best of all, organizers say, the students are introduced to engineering, a possible first step toward a career they might otherwise not consider.
Besides designing and building a scale model of their city, participants also write an essay and abstract. This year the essay asks students to consider current energy policy and how they might change it.
Using SimCity 3000 software, donated to each school by Maxis of Walnut Creek, Calif., the students are forced to deal with the consequences of each decision they make, including power technologies. Coal may be cheap, for example, but increased use means increased pollution and health care costs with lower neighborhood values and tax revenues. Other forms of energy may be cleaner, but more expensive. The software forces students to pay for their energy policies within a balanced budget.
Specifically, this year's essay must explain how the students researched and explored for energy sources, designed the city's energy plan, and how it efficiently used and conserved energy. One particular essay requirement asks them to demonstrate how their planned city will improve upon energy systems now in use in real cities.
Whether or not the students come up with any earth-shattering plans remains to be seen (some previous years' entries have bordered on genius), but beyond what the students plan, it's also important how they plan, according to Carol Rieg, the competition's national director.
"For some of these students, this is the first time they've ever worked as a team -- cooperate on a design, share research duties, brainstorm, reach consensus, and make a presentation -- and that's a critical lesson to learn because it's the essence of engineering," Rieg says. "Once they begin to think like engineers and see how they work, they begin to realize that engineering touches almost every part of their lives."
If that insight should spark a middle school student to consider engineering as a career, Rieg adds, then it may also be the inspiration to continue math and science studies during middle and secondary school years, a requirement for college level engineering courses.
Although many schools participating in the 2002 Future City Competition have already begun their projects, organizers say it's simple for schools to enter into the competition if they act now by contacting Carol Rieg, national director, at 1-(877) 636-9578 or cardress@aol.com, or visit www.futurecity.org. But, they must sign up before the October 31 deadline.
The National Engineers Week Future City Competition is sponsored by the National Engineers Week Committee, a consortium of professional and technical engineering societies and major U.S. corporations, co-chaired in 2002 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and DuPont.
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