On Saturday, January 16, seventh and eighth grade students from Heritage and Genoa competed against a number of middle schools from Ohio in the State DiscoverE’s Future City Competition, held at Columbus State Community College. The Genoa Middle School team walked away with the state title and will take their vision of a future city to Washington, D.C. in February, when they will go up against other state champions from across the country.
The contest consists of several components. Teams wrote an essay on the topic of “Waste Not, Want Not,” which challenged the students to think about how to design a waste management system for residential and commercial use by considering waste reduction, reuse, collection separation, processing, recycling, related health and safety issues energy efficiency environmental impact and cost. In addition to the essay, pupils completed a computer component using Sim City software, created an engineering project plan, built a scale model of their city of the future using mostly recycled materials, and prepared a presentation to share their city highlights at the state competition.
The Genoa team, under the guidance of Debbie Pellington and engineer Dino Torlone, retired from Ross Laboratories (now known as Abbott Nutrition), created a city called Baradwysdon, set in futuristic Wales. In addition to winning the overall competition, they took first place for Best Use of Transportation, Best Use of Recreation, and Best Use of Ceramics. They also earned honorable mentions for Best Computer City Design and Best Essay.
The Heritage team, guided by Media Specialist Kris Konik, Gifted Facilitator Debbie Pellington, and engineer Erik McPeek from the Delaware County Regional Sewer District, took first place for Best Infrastructure, first place for Best Innovative Solutions for Water and Wastewater Utilities to Reduce Costly Reinvestment in America’s Aging Infrastructure, and first place for Best Use of Water Resources Engineering. Their city was called Urbis Maritimas, set in futuristic Italy.
The Future City Competition is a national, not-for-profit education program, with more than 40,000 students from 1,350 middle schools typically participating.