Students compete in national competition

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Students compete in national competition

  • December 31, 2015
  • Posted by: LSEM
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Recently several students from Trinity’s talented and gifted program in grades 6 through 8 participated in the National Engineers Week Future City Competition.  This is a national competition with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Students are able to imagine, design, and build cities of the future. Each year a topic is assigned (this year’s topic was transportation) and students must identify problems with the topic, propose solutions to the problems, and incorporate those solutions into their future city. Students begin by learning about city planning by constructing a virtual city on the computer. They must write a 1,000 word essay detailing their solutions. Students must build a model of their future city to scale using mostly recycled materials. Finally, students present their model and solutions to a panel of judges at an even hosted by the Engineering Society of Detroit.

While Trinity did not come in first place, we did receive several awards. 6th and 7th graders won two awards for their model: Best incorporation of plastics & Best Waste Management design. Our eighth grade team won the award of Best Land Surveying Practices which included an award for each team member and a cash prize of $100 for the school!

As a teacher, I LOVE participating in this event. Future City is an engaging way to build students’ 21st century skills. I really enjoy watching their knowledge and awareness of the world around them grow and change. They develop “real world” teamwork skills and learn to utilize each other’s individual strengths and gifts. I couldn’t be more proud of this group of students!