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What Is Future City?

The mission of the National Engineers Week Future City Competition is to provide a fun and exciting educational engineering program for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students that combines a stimulating engineering challenge with a "hands-on" application to present their vision of a city of the future. This will be accomplished by: 

Fostering engineering skills, such as teamwork, communication and problem solving skills; Providing interaction among students, teachers, and engineer mentors; Informing the community about the multi-disciplines within the engineering profession; Inspiring students to explore futuristic concepts and careers in engineering. 

The National Engineers Week Future City Competition requires:
  • Problem-solving
  • Team work
  • Research and presentation skills
  • Practical math and science applications
  • Computer skills
The competition employs a team-based approach. All members of the team have an important role that is necessary for the completion of the project. 

If you've never participated in the competition before, it may seem daunting at first. But there is a learning curve, and everything will become easier once you break down the instructions. This is important to remember as your project progresses, because regardless of how your team does in the competition, you'll want to teach your students the value of seeing their project through to completion. Also, remember why you're participating and what your students will gain from designing and building their city of the future: Future City will give them an introduction to different types of engineering, from civil to electrical, chemical to mechanical. It will also teach them skills such as writing, public speaking, teamwork, time management, problem solving and new computer skills. Above all, they'll find it fun since it allows them to use their imaginations. There's a benefit to you, too, as you'll find the competition will cover many of the fundamental math, science and technology skills that your students will need to learn at this grade level 

A Future City team includes one teacher sponsor, one engineer mentor, and three 6th, 7th, or 8th grade students. Teacher sponsors do not have to have an engineering background. 

The registration fee per school (a school can have multiple teams) is $25. The Georgia Region of Future City provides one copy of SimCity 4 Deluxe, a teacher handbook, teacher and mentor orientation sessions, teacher training, mentor training handbook, a student handbook for each student involved in the competition, visits as requested to the school, and the Future City Competition (which includes a continental breakfast and lunch for the team, gifts for team members, awards and certificates, etc). Teams are allowed to spend a maximum of $100 to purchase supplies for the scale model.