The team from Heritage Middle School took first place at the 2018 Future City Competition Ohio Region event, earning the right to compete in Washington, D.C. at nationals next month.
On Saturday, January 20, seventh and eighth grade students from Blendon, Heritage, and Walnut Springs middle schools competed against a number of teams from Ohio in the State DiscoverE’s Future City Competition, held at the Eastland Career Center. When the event concluded, the team from Heritage Middle School came out on top.
Heritage pupils, who presented their city Sophia Vitae (meaning Age is Wisdom), took first place in the state competition and will represent Ohio in the National Future City Competition held in Washington D.C. beginning on February 20. The team, led by teacher Anne Bates and engineer Erik McPeek from the Delaware County Regional Sewer District, also took first place for Best Use of Recreation, Best Computer City Design and Honorable Mention for Best Land Surveying Practices. Heritage team members are:
- Research/Design/Building Team: Max Scholl, Dominic Steel, Dylan Penny, Lauren Arn, and Dahlia Mohamed.
- Research/Presentation and Essay: Kim Welch, Mahad Yusuf, and Will Pyle. (This group will compete in Washington, D.C.) The alternate is Margaret Mehlo.
- Research/Virtual City: Jeffrey Siefker.
- Research/Logistics: Kelsey Schmidt, Caitlin O’Brien, Jon Stowers, and Matthew Sliwinski.
The team from Walnut Spring Middle School received an Honorable Mention for Best Infrastructure for their city, North Wakea. Student members were Colleen Lynch, Natalie Ma, Jace Boozer, Giselle Guevara and Brooke Jones. They were advised by teacher Phil Carney and engineer Nathan Lang from the City of Westerville.
Representing Blendon Middle School were student presenters Ethan Stofel, Sammi Robinson and Tyler Zwick. Teacher Patrick Schubert advised the team, along with engineer Brad Hoffman.
The four-month-long contest consists of several components. Teams wrote a 1,500-word essay on the topic of “An Age Friendly City.” This year’s competition asked participants to identify an age-related challenge that exists in today’s urban environments and engineer two innovative solutions that allow their future city’s senior citizens to be as active and independent as they want to be. In addition to the essay, pupils completed a computer component using SimCity 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 Future City Competition is a national, not-for-profit education program, with more than 40,000 students from 1,350 middle schools typically participating. Learn more at www.futurecity.org.