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For Students Concerned About The Future, An Engineering Competition Shows How They Can Make A Difference Anyone searching for evidence of vision and promise among America's young people need look no further than the 2003 National Engineers Week Future City Competition™, where tens of thousands of seventh- and eighth-graders from more than 1,000 schools are using the full force of their knowledge, imagination and skills to creatively approach the challenges of today and tomorrow. The very real and serious concerns of the world -- pollution, global warming, security, overpopulation and others -- are no less serious to America's middle school students than to adults. But, across the country, students participating in this educational engineering program report that Future City is helping them understand how to handle these problems, through high-tech solutions such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Begun in 1992 by the National Engineers Week Committee, a consortium of more than 100 engineering societies and corporations, as a way to raise awareness and appreciation of engineering among young people, Future City has evolved into one of the most successful not-for-profit educational programs of its kind. Students start the competition in the fall, designing three-dimensional and computer city models. They also must write a 100 to 200 word abstract on their city and a 300 to 500 word essay solving an engineering problem. This year's essay theme is the promise and limitations of biotechnology in reducing pollution. Then they present and defend their design to a panel of judges at the competition. Local schools compete in one of 31 regions across the country in January. Regional first place teams win all-expense paid trips to Washington, D.C. for national finals during National Engineers Week, February 16-22, 2003. The optimism of these young people comes even as they are fully aware of such extraordinary challenges as global warming and rapid loss of natural resources. It is within those distinctly harsh parameters, in fact, that they are devising realistic -- and often brilliant -- designs of an urban reality that expects tomorrow to be better than today. "In the world today, there's so much pollution that we need to find a way to stop the pollution and save the world," explains Michael Sladnick, a 14-year-old from Central School in Glencoe, Illinois. His solution? Nanotechnology. "I think it's something that's really cool," says the eighth-grader. "It's engineering on a microscopic scale, at the molecular level. It could be a lot more important in the future with energy, health and farming." Michael's teammate (Future City participants work in teams with the help of a teacher and volunteer engineer advisor), Ruy Calderon, says the program has given him a chance to ponder the future and, at the same time, "a chance to use my brain in an effective and good way." How so? Ruy notes, "I've used it to theorize about a floating city on small rotors that balance the city during stormy weather, like oil platforms as they go out to sea. I've also theorized about a subway that works underwater." To build their computer models, Future City participants use SimCity 3000 software donated to all the schools by Maxis Corporation of Walnut Creek, Calif. But, as Ruy points out, this is more than a computer game. "It has more to do with the future," he says. "With Future City, there's always something new. We have new problems to solve. There's always something that requires a lot of brain work." Though Future City is part of an increasing number of middle school curricula, most students participate through after-school programs. For a student to spend after-school hours, weekends, and school breaks not only willingly, but eagerly working to engineer nanotechnology schemes for a city of the future may seem odd at first glance, but for teachers involved with the program, it's precisely the rigorous demands of Future City that make it so popular. "Last year, the person who wrote our essay got up every morning a half-hour to an hour early to write it," explains John Pfund, the teacher advising the Future City team from St. John's Lutheran school in Rochester, Michigan. That student and her team, he notes, went on to win second place at the nationals. Teachers throughout the competition tell similar stories. When the PBS television series ZOOM was developing episodes involving Future City, for example, they originally declined an offer from Jane Ring to feature her 2002 student team from Our Lady Help of Christians in Abington, Pa., opting instead for the program's professional actors. "They told me average kids can't carry a show," she recalls. "I said, 'You gotta see my team!'" After much prodding, the producers decided to take a look at a videotape. Her students will be included in four episodes scheduled to air nationwide in April 2003. Ring's 2003 team seems no less outstanding. As a location for their city of the future, the students chose the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, Chernobyl. Dubbed "NeoChernobyl," the students say they plan to biologically extract radiation poisoning from soil. When asked why his team had selected such a problematic site, 14-year-old Buddy Riggs replies, "If the project wasn't so difficult it wouldn't be so hard and fun." His teammate, Ria Di Camillo, offers a more poignant line of reasoning. "We want to show that something can come out of tragedy," she says. "For people who lived there, it's their home. They might want to go back even after what happened. It might have a good effect on healing." She adds, "And they know that if something happens again, they can get help." Volunteer engineers are also there to guide each team of young people as they make decisions about infrastructure, zoning, human resources and all the other variables that touch the lives of everyone. "These students are getting lessons in how real cities successfully function and the crucial role engineering has in that success," says William Waldron, an electrical engineer at Cingular Wireless in Philadelphia and mentor to the team from Drexel Hill Middle School in Drexel Hill, Pa. "Once they see how engineers are at the heart of what's happening, it's often the first step toward them taking an interest in an engineering career." Along with that dedication and determination, teams across the country say Future City makes math, science and social studies come alive with real-life perspectives. "In math class I always asked, 'How can we use what you're teaching us?' and my teacher always drew a blank," says Jody Lang, an eighth-grader on the Future City team at St. Francis of Assisi in Tonawanda, New York. "In class all you do is look at the board and learn how to do it, but you never really apply it. In Future City you take the stuff you learn and see the effects." At Lionville Middle School in Exton, Pa., 13-year-old David Jacobson has a similar take. "I like Future City because it's fun. It's school-related, but it's more interesting. You get to take the math stuff you learn in school and apply it." As part of his school's Future City effort, David and his teammates are also using a professional CAD program donated by Bentley Systems, an engineering software company based in Exton and the Future City national finals host. Though only a small percentage of students win at the regional and national level, most agree that the program is worth it just for skills and talents it allows them to use -- and not just in math and science. "I like working with my friends," says Makyra Pennyfeather, an eighth-grader at I.S. 123 in the Bronx, New York. "I'm getting better at coordinating ideas with my friends and getting to know them." Her teacher, Chris Goodings, notes that advancing team-building and interpersonal and social skills are among the finest qualities of the competition. "I enjoy seeing them make their presentations," says Goodings, who volunteers his time for the after-school Future City program because his school doesn't have the funding to pay him. "When they first started in September, they were afraid to get up on stage. Then they broke through a barrier. After that, they were even able to give a performance of their presentation to the school." For Carol Rieg, national director of Future City, breaking through barriers is at the core of Future City's goals. "Students want to be challenged, to think harder and work harder," she says. "The Future City Competition is an innovative program that rewards leadership and creative vision by enhancing students' self-confidence to use critical thinking skills in addressing the problems they face today and the challenges that lie ahead." # # #
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National Engineers Week Foundation
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