Future City
Future City is a project-based learning program where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future.
Starting with the question, “How can we make the world a better place?” students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue.
2021 – 2022
Design a Waste-Free City
The 2021-2022 Future City theme is Designing a Waste-Free City. Teams will be asked to design a waste-free city that uses the principles of a circular economy.
Teams
Up to 4 teams from each registered school can compete at the Regional Competition in January
- 3 student presenters, though more students can particpate
- A teacher/coach
- Teachers/Coaches include certified teachers, parents, community members interested in leading teams
- An engineer/mentor
- Provide technical assistance
- Devote 20 – 40 hours of their time over the length of the project
Teams are encouraged to participate in the partial competition even without all the deliverables completed. However, to win the Regional Competition, teams must complete and submit all the deliverables.
Mentors
- Local companies related to the theme
- Technical/Engineering firms
- City/County officials or engineers
- PTA
- Parents
- Sponsors
- National engineering and professional organizations
- If all else fails, contact the regional coordinators
Scoring
There are 5 competition components worth a total of 218 points. Each form has its own point value and deadline. Please refer to the rubrics, guidelines, and competition rules outlined in your 2021–2022 Future City Handbook to ensure you have up-to-date information and the best chance to meet requirements.
SimCity / Virtual City: 0 points
The Virtual City is no longer a judged or required deliverable. Nationals encourages teams to use SimCity or similar software as an educational tool to test their ideas and practice designing and managing a city.
City Essay: 54 points
Due date is January 12, 2022 – Uploaded to the CMS.
Physical Model: 55 points
Due date is January 12, 2022 – Uploaded to the CMS.
City Presentation: 50 points
Due date is January 12, 2022 – Video shared via site such as YouTube or Vimeo
Project Plan: 10 points
Due date is January 12, 2022 – Upload to the CMS.
City Q&A: 49 points
Due date is January 22, 2022 – the day of the competition.
Media Form: 0 points
Due date is January 22, 2022 – Digital waivers due by the day of competition.
Competition Expense Form: 0 points
Due date is January 22, 2022 – the day of the competition.
Scoring Deductions
- Missing the submission deadline for City Model, City Presentation or City Essay – 5-10 points
- Exceeding the City Essay word count – 2-10 points
- Exceeding the 25 slide limit – 15 points
- Missing, incomplete, or inaccurate Competition Expense Form (including receipts) – 15 points
- Exceeding the $100 budget or misrepresenting the values of materials used in the City Model and/or presentation/special awards – 20 points
- Missing identification information on first slide – 5 points
- Changing text box size or including written content outside of approved text boxes – 15 points
- Missing Honor Statement – 2 points
- Unsportsmanlike conduct (rude behavior or disruption of judging by any team member or guests) – Disqualification
- Plagiarism (if a team’s City Essay is determined to be plagiarized) – 0 points earned for deliverable
- Destruction of another team’s model or presentation materials or actions or comments from team members or team supporters that malign, disparage, or harass regional coordinators or volunteers – disqualification
Awards
Only the 3 presenters are eligible for awards at the Regional and National Competitions. Special Awards are presented by sponsors (Special Awards change annually depending on the sponsors each year). Remember to register your team for our regional Special Awards. Regional Top 5 Teams (2nd-5th) receive trophies and medals. First Place Regional winners receive trophies (Regional and National) and medals. This team will go on to compete in the National Finals in the spring.
Team Awards
Best City Essay
Best City Essay that meets all competition requirements and has the highest score as voted on by judges before Regional Competition
Sponsored by Future City Iowa
Best City Model
Best City Model that meets all competition requirements and has the highest score as voted on by judges during the Regional Competition
Sponsored by Future City Iowa
Best City Presentation
Best City Presentation that meets all competition requirements and has the highest score as voted on by judges before Regional Competition
Sponsored by Future City Iowa
Special Awards
We will present Special Awards at the 2021 Iowa Regional Future City Competition. Teams of judges from local businesses will talk to students about their cities. Prior to the competition, each team will select the Special Awards for which they would like to be considered.
Environmental Vision Award
The city that demonstrates the best environmental vision for clean air, water, and land
Sponsored by Terracon Consultants, Inc.
Best Use OF Recycled Materials
The model with the most creative way that one to a few items from “our world” cleverly became something else within the Future City
Sponsored by The Curiosity Path
Most diverse Infrastructure
Teams will be evaluated on their diversity of materials and geometries. Importance will also be placed on the unique uses of these materials
Sponsored by Society of Women Engineers – East Central Iowa
Best Land Surveying Practices
The design that employs the best land surveying practices, taking into consideration the high standards used by surveyors to help protect the public’s safety and welfare
Sponsored by NCEES
Best City App
Design an app for your Future City using Code.org’s app lab. How could an app enhance the lives of citizens in your Future City? Assist with energy or water infrastructure? Help with transportation challenges? Maybe recreation or education services? Once you have a concept for how an app could help your citizens, use your computer coding skills to make a prototype of your city’s new app using Code.org’s App Lab.
Sponsored by NewBoCo K-12 Education
Best Land Management
Some of the best ways to protect the environment are to minimize land disturbance and protect existing natural resources such as woodlands, prairies, and water resources. The challenge in development is to reduce environmental impact by using the lay of the land to determine the best location for things such as buildings, streets, schools, etc.
Sponsored by MMS Consultants
Most Innovative System Design
The model that integrates the most innovative system (e.g. transportation, water, and wastewater) for a community
Sponsored by ASCE Eastern Iowa Young Member Group
Best Constructed Model
The model that demonstrates the best construction principles which ensure its sturdiness and durability
Sponsored by ASCE Eastern Iowa Young Member Group
Most Innovative Power Distribution/Communications System
The model with the most innovative method or technique for generating or transmitting power or providing communications
Sponsored by IEEE
Best Future City Project Plan
Teams should be able to explain how they followed the project cycle, including how they created their project schedule, assigned responsibilities, and monitored and controlled their work. Teams should be able to discuss their answers to the Team Reflection questions. Samples of work that highlight teams’ project management activities are encouraged.
Sponsored by PMI Education Foundation
Each team should read the Future City Handbook in its entirety to make sure all aspects of the competition are understood. Please also carefully read the Official Competition Rules on page 81 of the Handbook as well. An FAQ section is included below for quick reference and to hopefully help answer any additional questions you may have.
Q: Where is the Iowa Competition held?
A: Our Regional Competition will be held virtually.
Q: Is it necessary to have an engineer mentor work with the students?
A: We highly recommend it. Engineers, architects, and other technical professionals bring practical experience and advice on designing and building the city. We want students to understand how technology impacts our lives. Because of the nature of the competition, a mentor from the engineering community is preferred, but a mentor can be anyone involved in a technical profession.
Each team is required to have a mentor either way, as the Official Team format includes three student presenters, one educator, and one mentor. Mentors can be engineers, technical professionals, architects, urban planners, city managers, or others who work in the engineering and technical community.
Q: What is the financial cost to participate?
A: The registration fee is waived for Iowa organizations.
For each team, there will be some cost in building the city model, and perhaps a small cost for presentation materials. There is a $100 limit per team for all model and presentation materials, whether direct or in-kind. Schools may solicit support from local community organizations. The model requires students to use recyclable materials, which doesn’t count toward the $100 limit.
It is also permissible for the engineer volunteers to generate or solicit support.
A: Competition Expense Form is required from each team Make sure to bring this completed form and all receipts with you to the Regional Competition.
Q: How much time will a teacher have to devote to the project?
A: Teachers spend approximately 35-45 hours on the competition. Of course, all teams and coaches are different, but this is a reasonable range to expect. It is the teacher’s responsibility to schedule time for the students and the engineer-volunteer to work together and to oversee work done on the project.
Q: How much time will students need to spend on the project?
A: Estimates are:
- Design City – 18-20 hours
- Build Model – 20-30 hours per student team member
- City Description – 8 hours
- Presentation – 7 hours
Q: How much time will the engineer-mentor need to spend on the project?
A: Typically, most engineers or mentors devote approximately 12-14 hours. The engineer mentor should be available to provide advice and technical assistance to the students. It is hoped that he or she will be available whenever the students work on the project.
Q: Must all students on a team be from the same school or organization?
A: Yes
Q: Can more than one team per school or organization compete at the Regional Competition?
A: Yes, the Iowa Region permits up to 4 teams from a single school or organization to attend the Regional Competition.
Q: How many students can be on a team?
A: Teams come in all sizes—a whole class, a group of 10 students, or 3 students. As you near competition time, you’ll need to identify the three students who will officially present the team’s work at the Regional Competition.
Q: If my team has more than three students, can they all attend the Regional Competition?
A: Absolutely! We strongly encourage all students to attend. However, only the three presenters are eligible for Special Awards and advancing to Nationals if selected.
Q: When is the team registration deadline?
A: Teams must be registered online by October 31, 2020.
Q: How many SimCity software codes will a school receive?
A: Each registered school will receive up to two codes which will allow them to download the SimCity software online. Additional codes may be requested by emailing info@futurecity.org, but they are not guaranteed.
Q: I am not familiar with SimCity. Will I receive any instructions?
A: Instructions are provided on the Future City National Website, through webinars, and also at Future City resources and the SimCity website.
Q: What grade levels are permitted to participate in Future City Competition?
A: Sixth through eighth grades can participate.
Q: Who do I contact to find Mentors?
- Local Companies related to the theme
- Technical/Engineering Firms
- City/County Officials or Engineers
- PTA
- Parents
- Sponsors
- National Engineering and Professional organizations
- If all else fails, contact the Regional Coordinator
Q: Can multiple teams from the same organization be included in the top 5 teams at the Regional Competition?
A: According to the National Future City Competition Program Handbook, only the top-scoring team from an organization is allowed to advance to the final round of the Regional Competition. We have encountered multiple top-scoring teams coming from the same organization in the past, and this is part of the reason why we have a limit of 4 teams per organization being allowed to compete at the Regional Competition. We want to ensure organizations across the state have the best opportunity to be represented.
Q: What is the official name and EIN of Future Cities for donation purposes?
A: Our official name is Future City Iowa. We are a 501(c)3 charitable organization under NewBoCo; all donations are tax-deductible. Our IRS determination letter is available upon request. Please consider contributing!
All Future City Competition Forms are now available as writeable PDFs.**
** You need Adobe Reader installed on your computer and acting as your default pdf reader. Download the free version.
Essentials
Write the City Essay
Build the Model
City Presentations:
City Q&A
Call for Judges
Future City starts every year with an important challenge topic—how can we make the world a better place? To answer it, 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade students imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future that showcase their solutions that address global sustainability issues. Students from across Iowa have written 1500-word essays, created virtual cities, and designed scaled 3D models of their cities. Now it’s time for them to present their city for a chance to win the Iowa Regional Competition. The winner of the Future City Iowa Regional Competition will represent Iowa in the National Competition. Sign Up to VolunteerWhat YOU do as a Judge
You can volunteer to judge deliverables like the City Essay, City Presentation, and City Model virtually per your availability, or judge the City Q&A sessions live, virtually. Scores from multiple judges will be combined and averaged. Below is a sample schedule for the competition day.| 9:00 – 9:45 | Review/Orientation |
| 9:15 – 10:00 | Special Awards Judging |
| 10:15 – 10:30 | Round 1: Model & Presentation |
| 10:35 – 10:50 | Round 2: Model & Presentation |
| 10:55 – 11:10 | Round 3: Model & Presentation |
| 11:15 – 11:30 | Round 4: Model & Presentation |
| 11:35 – 11:50 | Round 5: Model & Presentation |
| 12:00 – 12:45 | Break for Lunch/Score Tabulations |
| 12:45 – 1:15 | Awards Ceremony and Top 5 Announcement |
| 1:45 – 3:00 | Top 5 Judging Rounds |
| 3:00 – 3:15 | Final Score Tabulations |
| 3:15 – 3:30 | Top 5 Announcement and Award Ceremony |
When and Where
Early Deliverable Judging: Saturday, January 15th – Sunday, January 16th, per your availability Competition day, Live City Q&A Judging: Saturday, January 22, 2022 8:30 AM – 1:00 PM Virtual Sign Up to VolunteerPlease, contact our Regional Coordinators if you have any questions.
Special Award Winners
- Best City Essay: Lignum Vitae from Taft Middle School in Cedar Rapids
- Best City Presentation: Kanaloa from Franklin Middle School in Cedar Rapids
- Best City Model: Sans-déchets Île from Taft Middle School in Cedar Rapids
- Best Land Surveying Practices: Verão from Take Action United in Cedar Rapids
- Most Creative Use of Recycled Materials: Futuravita from South Middle School in Waukee
- Most Diverse Infrastructure: Ciudad Verde from Take Action United in Cedar Rapids
- Most Innovative Power Distribution/Communication System: Ilios from Taft Middle School in Cedar Rapids
- Best Future City Project Plan: Powerful Seas from McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids
- Most Innovative System Design: Ciclo City from Evans Middle School in Ottumwa
- Most Innovative Stormwater and/or Floodplain Management: Kovan from Taft Middle School in Cedar Rapids
- Outstanding Use of Circular Economy Principles: Circside from McKinley STEAM Academy in Cedar Rapids
Top 5 Finalists
- Sans-déchets Île from Taft Middle School in Cedar Rapids
- Gyrus from Harding Middle School in Cedar Rapids
- Sustainacity from South Middle School in Waukee
- Kumuhea from Franklin Middle School in Cedar Rapids
- Ciclo City from Evans Middle School in Ottumwa
Future City Iowa Regional Winner
Questions? Get in Touch!
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