UPDATED October 12^th, 2009

The Future City™ Competition, in its 18^th year nationally and 6^th year in Idaho, is essentially a free educational program for seventh and eighth-grade students run entirely by volunteers throughout the state. It is a national program that fosters and interest in math, science and engineering through hands-on, real world applications.

The Future City Program combines an engineering challenge with a "hands-on" application as students present their vision of a city of the future by working in teams along with their teacher and a volunteer engineer mentor.
Teams of students (three per team) will perform the following tasks:

• Students are given SimCity4 software, which they use to design their own "future city" while taking into account real life design considerations such as energy needs, traffic density, and pollution.
• Next, the students research and write and essay on a given engineering topic. This year's essay is "Providing A Sustainable and Affordable Living Space For People Who Have Lost Their Home Due to a Disaster or Financial Emergency."
• The students must also build a model (50" x 25" x 20") of a portion of their city using recycled materials.
• Finally, they present the whole package to a panel of judges at the Idaho Competition.

The preparation starts in August-October. Regional competitions are in January.  The national competition is held in Washington D.C. during Engineer's Week.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Contact a member of our Steering Committee

1. If you would like to volunteer as a judge or engineering mentor.
2. If your school is interested in participating and would like more information.
3. If you are a student and you want more information to take to your school to encourage their support.
4. If you would like to be placed on our e-mail list for Future City - Idaho updates and newsletter notifications.
5. If you have any suggestions either for the Idaho Future City program or for this web page.