Projects

The National Engineers Week Future City® Competition, one of the nation's most successful engineering education programs, offers 7th and 8th grade students a fun way to learn about different kinds of engineering by dealing with the real-world problems associated with creating a livable city of the future.

The North Texas Region is celebrating its 10th anniversary and we would like to enlist your help to make this year’s program the most successful ever.

• SCHOOL RECRUITING – help us to reach out to middle schools around the area and encourage them to participate in this unique opportunity. Throughout the country, Science and Math test results remain alarmingly low - the Future City Competition can help. Using a hands-on, inquiry-based strategy, this program gives middle school students a fun way to tackle real-world problems while building their STEM skills. And, the low cost of the program puts it within reach of any school. Registration remains open through October. You can find a brochure at www.dfwfuturecity.org/FC_brochure.pdf and additional information throughout the website.
• SPONSOR A SCHOOL – Recruit a school and provide assistance with mentoring and financial support for team activities. (Approximate cost: $100-200 per team.)
• VOLUNTEER TO MENTOR – Each Future City team includes an engineer-mentor who works directly with the student teams and is involved in all phases of the competition as an advisor. He/she (or they – team mentoring is allowed) provides technical assistance and real-life experience as the students work on the competition.

BACKGROUND

The purpose of the Future City Competition is to encourage students to pursue a technical career, to address important environmental issues in our world, and to realize their vision of a city of the future. The winner of our regional event will go on to compete in Washington, DC during National Engineers Week.

Seventh and eighth grade students are challenged in a series of fun, hands-on applications to present their unique set of solutions to the real-world problems of creating a livable city. To do so, they will adopt the principles of every branch of engineering to support their assertions. Each competing team is asked to first generate a computerized design of a future city, then build a scale model of that city using as many recycled materials as possible.

THIS YEAR’S CHALLENGE IS AFFORDBLE, GREEN HOUSING – the students must research and write a paper describing their design for a  living space for families that have been displaced. Their designs must also strive to achieve the “Green Ideals” of building. In the final phase of the program (Jan 23, 2010), the teams will publicly present their projects to a panel of judges.

In about a month, we will be contacting you again with our annual call for volunteers and judges. See http://www.dfwfuturecity.org to learn more on how you and your organization can make a difference to the next generation of engineers.

***PLEASE FORWARD THIS INFORMATION to your colleagues and encourage them to take advantage of this opportunity to help ensure the next generation of engineers and technical professionals. Feel free to post on your website or include in your newsletter.