Teams of students from three WCPSS middle schools earned honors in the NC Regional National Engineers Week Future City ® competition.
The teams of WCPSS student teams earning honors were:
- Second place: Martin Magnet Middle School
- Third place: Ligon Magnet Middle School
- Fourth place: Centennial Campus Magnet Middle School
The Martin team included Kevin C., Jonathan Schertz, Jackson Perrin, alternate Yach W., along with advisor Bonham West and engineer-mentor Bryan Burnitt. The team created a virtual city, named “New Vaca”, using SIM City software, and then built a scale model to reflect the theme, “Fuel Your Future: Imagine New Ways to Meet Our Energy Needs and Maintain a Healthy Planet”.
Specialty Award Winners include:
- Best Transportation System: Ligon Magnet Middle School
- Best Management of Water Resources: East Millbrook IB Magnet Middle School 8th Grade
- Most Environmentally Sustainable City: East Millbrook IB Magnet Middle School 7th Grade
Student teams plan and design virtual cities with SimCity 4 software donated by Electronic Arts, build physical models with recycled materials and a budget of just $100, research and write a solution to an engineering problem, write a narrative describing their city, and present their ideas before a panel of judges. This year’s essay topic is Fuel Your Future. It asks students to choose one energy source and design a way to generate electric power for their city that does not deplete natural resources and has a limited impact on the environment. Teams are judged on their presentation, virtual city design, physical model, research essay and city narrative.
The competition took place in SAS Hall at NC State University on Jan. 21. Local support for the North Carolina Region competition was provided by:
- Shell (Major Sustaining Sponsor)
- North Carolina Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Center (Sustaining Sponsor)
- ACI Carolinas Chapter
- AECOM
- AMEC
- American Society of Civil Engineers – NC Section
- Martin Marietta Materials
- NC State University, College of Engineering
- Professional Engineers of North Carolina
- Simpson Engineers and Associates