News

Every other year, Springmont's Middle School students participate in the Future City Competition, a national STEM and engineering education program designed to help students apply engineering, math, and science concepts to real-world issues. In addition to preparing them to become citizens of today’s complex and technical world, the competition prompts students to learn about the engineering design process as well as to identify problems, brainstorm ideas, and design solutions. Simultaneous to exploring career options and learning how communities work, Future City is an engaging way to build students’ 21st-century skills, including writing and public speaking, problem-solving, time management and project management.

Future City starts with a question—how can we make the world a better place? To answer it, Middle School students are tasked with imagining, researching, designing, and building models of cities of the future showcasing their solutions to a sustainability issue. This year’s theme is Living on the Moon. Each team must design a futuristic lunar city and provide examples of how the city uses two Moon resources to keep its residents safe and healthy. Competition deliverables include a 1,500-word essay, a scale model built from recycled materials, a project plan, a presentation video, and a virtual Q&A session with judges. 

To see our Middle School students’ work in progress, click on the link in Monday's Springmont Weekly News and then on each of the four pictures on the wall to see each team’s presentation of their work so far. To best enjoy the presentations, click on the Full-Screen button in the black band at the bottom of the class picture.  

Please remember that our students are mid-way through the process - some structures are planned and built but not detailed, some technological systems are in place but are unfinished or not yet connected to other parts of the city, and final terrain features may not be present. Projects will be completed and submitted in January with interviews and judging in February. We will share pictures of the completed models and the results of the competition in February!