01/19/12

Woodlawn Middle School was the only public school from Baltimore County to participate in the Future City Competition held at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.

The Future City Competition is a national, project-based learning experience in which students in Grades 6-8 imagine, design, and build cities of the future. Students work as a team with an educator and engineer mentor to plan cities using SimCity™ 4 Deluxe software; research and write solutions to an engineering problem; and build tabletop scale models with recycled materials and present their ideas to judges at the regional competition.

Future City’s flexible, cross-curriculum program gives students an opportunity to work as engineers do:  identifying problems, brainstorming ideas; designing solutions; testing, retesting and building; and sharing the results. With this engineering design process at its center, Future City is an engaging way to build students’ 21st century skills.

Participants apply math and science concepts to real-world issues; develop writing, public speaking, problem solving, and time management skills; research and propose solutions to engineering challenges; discover different types of engineering and explore careers options; develop strong teamwork skills; and learn how their communities work and become better citizens.