Students Show off Their Cities of the Future
Tue Jan 15 2008
The city of the future might just feature some innovations created by middle school students in Wheeling, WV.Students from four Wheeling middle schools—Triadelphia, Wheeling, Warwood, and Bridge Street practiced at the Center for Educational Technologies® for the 2008 Pittsburgh Regional Future City Competition to be held Jan. 19 at Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh. The Jan. 9 rehearsal was coordinated by outreach staff at the center, a continuation of work started by NASA’s Mid-Atlantic Region Space Science Broker in 2005.
Each team created a city displaying residential, commercial, and industrial areas; power plants; transportation systems; communication systems; and other infrastructure. Students addressed important issues, such as pollution, traffic density, taxes, and budgets while creating their city.
At the rehearsal the students’ future city was judged, and the students then took that feedback and revised their projects before the actual competition in Pittsburgh.
The competition is part of National Engineers Week, which seeks to increase public awareness and appreciation of the engineering profession and technology by emphasizing engineers’ positive contributions to society. The Future City Competition provides seventh- and eighth-graders a fun, exciting way to understand how to practically apply math and science principles. Competitors use the SimCity™ software to help construct their future city, and they are assisted by real-life area engineers who serve as mentors for their team.
