North Texas Regional Future City Competition

The North Texas Section is a proud sponsor of the Future City Competition held annually at the University of Texas at Arlington’s Nedderman Hall. WEAT-NTS sponsors a $300 award for the annual Excellence in Application of Water Recycling category.

The Future City Competition is a national, project-based learning experience where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade imagine, design, and build cities of the future. Students work as a team with an educator and engineer mentor to plan cities using SimCity™ software, research and write solutions to an engineering problem, build tabletop scale models with recycled materials, and present their ideas before judges at Regional Competitions in January. Regional winners represent their region at the National Finals in Washington, D.C., in February.
This flexible, cross-curricular educational program gives students an opportunity to do the things that engineers do—identify problems; brainstorm ideas; design solutions; test, retest, and build; and share their results. This process is called the engineering design process. With this at its center, Future City is an engaging way to build students’ 21st-century skills. Students participating in Future City:

Apply math and science concepts to real-world issues
Develop writing, public speaking, problem solving, and time management skills
Research and propose solutions to engineering challenges
Discover different types of engineering and explore career options
Learn how their communities work and become better citizens

WEAT will again be supporting Future City Competition this year and serve as Special Award Sponsor; as such, we are asking for volunteers to serve as an Engineer-Mentor or Judge.

Registration is open until October 31^st!
The Future City Competition is a middle-school educational outreach program designed to foster interest in technology and engineering. North Texas is one of about 40 regions around the country holding a competition and sending their winners on to the national (now “international”) finals in Washington, DC.
Please volunteer and help support awareness and water environment education for students in our region! http://www.dfwfuturecity.org/part_vols.html

It’s amazing what 6th, 7th and 8th graders can do – makes you optimistic about the future!

Volunteer Positions Available!

Mentor – Engineer-Mentors are part of the team. They work directly with the students and teacher, acting as advisors, and are involved in all phases of the competition. The Engineer-Mentor provides technical assistance and real-life experience as the students work on the competition. WEAT has been a sponsor of a special award for the past two years and many WEAT members have served as volunteers for Engineer-Mentors and Judges.
Judge – We need dozens and dozens of judges to score team deliverables for the Future City Competition. As a judge, you will draw on your expertise and resources to fairly assess the team’s efforts. Middle-school student teams begin in September with their Future City designs and finish in January with the presentation of those designs.