User:Vtaylor/Future City/flyer

Future City Competition

A team from Burns Sci Tech will be participating in the Future City Competition 2018-2018. This is something new for us. And we are excited to have any interested Middle School students join in.

What is Future City?

Future City starts with a question—how can we make the world a better place? To answer it, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue. Past topics include stormwater management, urban agriculture, public spaces, and green energy. The 2018-2019 theme is Powering Our Future! Teams will design a resilient power grid for their future city that can withstand and quickly recover from the impacts of a natural disaster.

Participants complete five deliverables: a virtual city design (using SimCity); a 1,500-word city essay; a scale model built from recycled materials; a project plan, and a presentation to judges at Regional Competitions in January. Regional winners represent their region at the Finals in Washington, DC in February. After completing Future City, student participants are not only prepared to be citizens of today’s complex and technical world, but also poised to become the drivers of tomorrow. more information... futurecity.org

What are we doing?

We need a wide range of talents and interests. Planning a city 100 years in the future is a challenge, so we need plenty of ideas. We need to build a plan for the city infrastructure with the SimCity software. There needs to be an essay describing the vision and the unique features of the city. One of the major projects is the actual construction of a working model of our future city. There will be a presentation for to the judges at the Regional competition event. And all this activity needs to be planned, scheduled and managed.

How does this work?

The kids are going to have to work collaboratively using collaboration and project management technology. Yes, just like many people working in today's global workforce. The team will be able to work on Future City related projects in Mz.Z's classes, at lunch in the Media Center and at home. There will be regular check-in sessions to share ideas, research, prototypes and important updates on the team's city planning and development.

Teachers Ms. Greatrex and Mr. Z, and volunteer mentor Ms. Taylor are available to facilitate and support the efforts of the team. Parents are invited to help. The primary responsibility for all aspects of the Future City entry will be the team participants' - collectively and individually.

Commitment

Although everyone's schedule is different, we expect everyone to complete all their contributions on time. Taking responsibility for sharing in the project work and delivering on those commitments is really important to the overall success of the team. That is why there are frequent required check-ins. It is ok if problems arise, just so long as the team knows about these and decides the appropriate way to proceed.

We anticipate that 3-5 hours per week between early October and the Regional competition in January will be a required commitment. As this is our first time participating in the Future City Competition, this will be a learning experience for everyone.

Interested? We hope so!

Please let Mr.Z or Ms. Greatrex know if you are interested.

There will be more information and an application for available shortly.