What is the Future City Competition?

The National Engineers Week Future City Competition (www.futurecity.org) asks 7^th and 8^th grade students from around the nation to team with engineer-volunteer mentors to create — first on computer and then in large, three-dimensional models — their visions of the city of tomorrow.

Ohio’s Mission Statement: The mission of the Future City Competition - Ohio Region is to promote awareness of the engineering profession at the middle school level, and to have the students experience first hand how challenging, rewarding, and important to society a career in engineering is.

Background: The Future City Competition is organized under the National Engineers Week. The Future City Competition – Ohio Region, a licensed 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, has been operating under the National Engineers Week Future City Competition charter since 1997.

The program is aligned with National Standards, which can be reviewed at www.futurecity.org.

The Competition offers students a fun way to learn about engineering and cities of the future. Through the program, students will:

• Work as a team under the guidance of a teacher and a practicing engineer,
• Apply their knowledge to real world situations,
• See firsthand how engineers turn ideas into reality,
• Use a popular award-winning computer game, SimCity 4 Deluxe to design their future city,
• Build a scale model of a city section, and
• Write an referenced essay and abstract.

Through the National Engineers Week Future City Competition students will gain and demonstrate:

• Logical thinking skills,
• Problem-solving skills,
• The ability to work in teams,
• Research and presentation skills,
• The application of coursework to practical problems,
• Technological skills, and
• An awareness of community and business issues.

Future City Program is an integrated, multidisciplinary, holistic approach to relevant issue and is a wonderful example of STEMM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) education.