What is Future City?
Future City is a project-based learning program where students in 6th grade imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future. The 4th & 5th-grade students compete in a junior division competition at the regional level. Each team consists of 3 to 5 students, an educator (Mrs. Goodwin), and a parent mentor. Teams will meet after school to research, write an essay, create a blueprint of the city, establish a project plan, and finally build the city. Each team must have a parent-team mentor who is available to keep the team focused and guide the research and building. Expect students to spend time outside of school to work on this project.
Keeping the engineering design process and project management front and center, students work in teams to ask and answer an authentic, real-world question: How can we make the world a better place? Students participate in the Future City Competition in teams (of at least three students), guided by an educator and a parent mentor. Teams spend approximately four months creating cities that could exist at least 100 years in the future. Each city must incorporate a solution to an annual design challenge. This year, teams will tackle the Climate Change Challenge by choosing a climate change impact and designing one innovative and futuristic climate change adaptation and one mitigation strategy to keep their residents healthy and safe. On Saturday, January 28, 2023, teams present their projects to judges at the North Texas Regional Competitions. Before COVID, the Regional Competition was held at the University of Texas Arlington in the College of Engineering Building. At this time, the location states TBD. Teams who earn the top spot at their Regionals will participate in the 2023 Finals in Washington DC in February 2023. The top prize winner at Finals wins a trip to U. S. Space Camp in Huntsville, AL.
