CHICAGO—”Golden Square is proud to support the Future City Competition® (FCC) this year. It is our seventh year with FCC- DiscoverE STEM Program. The student teams and educators are incredible, and their ideas give great hope for our world. We applaud all of the volunteer judges and organizations who give numerous hours of their time to make this competition possible and give back to their industry and community,” said Deborah J. Hodges, president and managing principal of Golden Square.
The deadline to register for this year’s Future City Competition is October 31, 2020. Register today or learn more at www.futurecity.org.
The challenges of sustained lunar living, while immense, are within our grasp to conceive of and plan for. With the tantalizing concept of permanent human life on the Moon closer than ever to becoming a reality, the award-winning Future City® Competition, now in its 29th year, announces Living on the Moon, the 2020-21 theme for its project-based learning experience for middle schoolers.
The dream of living on the Moon has inspired humanity for eons. Artists, writers, scientists, engineers, futurists, and many others have vividly imagined what a thriving city on the lunar surface might look like.
Imagine life on the moon one hundred years from now, when lunar habitats have already progressed through multiple levels of development. What started as a collection of lunar landers expanded into an outpost, then a village, and is now a city. The Future City challenge is to build on this history, describe its location, share its innovative features and provide a detailed description of how the city uses the Moon’s unique resources to create a self-sustaining home where humans can live, work and thrive.
During this coming school year, 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade students from across the country and abroad will be asked to identify and tackle the many daunting challenges that are unique to living on the Moon, including no breathable atmosphere; gravity that is only 1/6 of that on Earth; nights that last for 14 Earth days; constant exposure to solar radiation; and dust that’s sharp as glass and gets into every crevice.
Working as a team with an educator and STEM mentor, students present their vision of the future through a 1,500-word city essay; a scale model of their city (built with recycled materials); a project plan to help keep their project on track; and in a short presentation to a panel of STEM professionals. Keeping the engineering design process and project management front and center, students are asked to address an authentic, real-world question: How can we make the world a better place?
Each year, over 45,000 students, representing 1,500 schools and 50 regions in the US and abroad, take part in the Future City Competition. Teams present their ideas at Regional Competitions in January. US regional winners then face off at the Future City Finals, where they are joined by a growing roster of international teams, including those from Canada and China. Taking place in Washington DC, February 13-17, 2021, during Engineers Week, the exciting competition culminates with one team taking home the grand prize of a trip to U.S. Space Camp and $7,500 for their school’s STEM program (provided by Finals sponsor Bentley Systems).
One of the nation’s leading engineering education programs and among the most popular, Future City has received national recognition and acclaim for its role in encouraging middle schoolers to develop their interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In 2017 Future City received a prestigious national award as a leading engineering education program, as it was recognized by US2020 and co-founding sponsors Chevron and Tata Consultancy Services for its achievements and innovations in STEM education and its
Major funding for the Future City Finals comes from the Bechtel Corporation, Bentley Systems, Inc, NCEES, Shell Oil Company, and DiscoverE. Additional program support provided by NASA, UEF, and UL.
Future City® State of Illinois
The State of Illinois Future City® Competition® is celebrating its 29th year as a regional group in the national competition. The regional competition involves teams, schools, and professionals from Illinois. In addition to the actual competition, Annual Chicago Engineers Benefit Dinner showcases the top local teams and award winners. For more information, visit our website here or go to http://futurecity.org/illinois-chicago. For more information for the Chicago Competition, contact us.
Future City® Regional Coordinator
Don Wittmer, P.E., HNTB dwittmer@hntb.com
Future City® Regional Committee
Matthew Miller, P.E., HNTB mamiller@hntb.com
Grant Manager & Press Contact
Deborah J. Hodges, State of Illinois (Golden Square) dhodges@goldensquare.biz
312.675.6080
###