Future City Competition

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Future City Competition is a national competition that focuses on improving student's math, engineering, and science skills. It contains two levels: individual state and regional competitions and the National Finals for the winners of these previous contests. The goal is to design a futuristic city and discussing its important elements of a city: urban planning, zoning, transportation, energy, economy, environment, and education. Team members represent their ideas and proposals in several ways:

Essay about the yearly theme (for example, the theme of the 2006-2007 Competition is Hydrogen Fuel Cells)
Abstract discussing their city's services and ideas.
Model to show a physical representation of one section of their city.
Computer Design using Sim City software.
Presentation to describe their city to the judges on the day of the competition.

The school can choose as many students as they choose to participate. Some use whole classes as teams in order to help reach the large scale demands of the competition. Others have auditions and have a team of only 10 students. This diverse range of team numbers has made the competition have only three official team members, who are also the speakers. They are the only ones who are recognized and, if successful at the regional level, are the only ones who travel in Washington for the national finals. Some schools, though, have tried to bring unofficial team members to the National Competition as well. The team is comprised of students, a teacher, and an engineer mentor who helps students learn about the science and appliance of engineering. Volunteers who assist the team are also allowed.