Michigan Middle Schoolers Compete In Future City Regional Finals, January 23, 2017 at Suburban Collection Showplace

Public spaces have the capacity to revitalize a city’s economy by introducing new businesses and bringing in new visitors. They can also help reduce crime, ease traffic congestion, improve pedestrian safety, promote healthy living, improve the environment, and enhance civic engagement. A recent study by the UN-Habitat’s Global Urban Observatories Unit found that cities that devoted about 50% of their space to public use tended to be more prosperous and have a higher quality of life.

Celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2016-17, this year’s Future City Competition poses these questions and more as it asks middle school students to address The Power of Public Space and challenges them to design innovative, multiuse public spaces that serve a city’s diverse population.

Since returning to school earlier this fall, student teams from the Michigan region, have been hard at work on their Future City projects. As they prepare for their regional finals this January, set for January 23, 2017 at Suburban Collection Showplace, they join more than 40,000 middle school students from 1,350 schools in 37 regions around the country, all of whom are engaged in similar competitions.

First-place winners from each qualifying regional competition receive a trip to the Future City Competition Finals in Washington, D.C., February 18-21, 2017, during Engineers Week.

The Future City Competition is a project-based learning experience where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future. Keeping the engineering design process and project management front and center, students are asked to address an authentic, real-world question: How can we make the world a better place?

To commemorate its 25th year, Future City is honoring those whose tireless contributions make the competition possible. Highlighted on its social media pages and on FutureCity.org are blog posts featuring 25 exceptional students, educators, mentors, volunteers and partners who have participated in the program – past and present.

One of the nation’s leading engineering education programs and among the most popular, Future City has received national recognition and acclaim for its role in encouraging middle schoolers nationwide to develop their interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). In 2016, the Future City Competition was the recipient of the 2016 Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction, presented by Turner Construction Company and the National Building Museum.

In 2015, Future City was named the grand prize winner in the UL (Underwriters Laboratories Inc.) Innovative Education Award program, receiving a $100,000 award. The UL award highlights the essential, urgent and significant value of E-STEM education.

Working in a team with an educator and engineer mentor, students are challenged to design a virtual city using SimCity™ software. They research today’s public spaces and write a city essay about their solutions and city design. Students then bring their ideas to life by building a tabletop scale model of their city using recycled materials on a budget of $100 or less and give a brief presentation about their city.

Major funding for the Finals comes from Bechtel Corporation, Bentley Systems, Shell Oil Company, and DiscoverE.

To learn more, visit www.futurecity.org or our Facebook page.

About DiscoverE

DiscoverE is leading a growing volunteer movement that inspires and informs present and future generations to discover engineering. Our network of volunteers in the US and abroad is drawn from the DiscoverE coalition of more than 100 professional societies, major corporations and government agencies. Together we meet a vital need: introducing students, parents, and educators to engineering, engaging them in hands-on engineering experiences and making science and math relevant. For more information, visit www.discovere.org.