Teams from Edythe J. Hayes and Leestown middle schools tackled the Future City Competition for the first time this year and picked up three awards in the Jan. 16 regional contest:
- “Best Virtual Design,” the Amara Cities of Aelius and Lunarc, Leestown;
- “Best Newcomer School,” Leestown; and
- “Best Presentation (model pictured here),” City of Tomorrow, Hayes.
In Future City, students generate the ideas, plan their execution, and present the final product. Throughout the process, mentors share their engineering expertise and help students develop project-management and systems-thinking skills. Teams are judged and scored on virtual city design using SimCity software, a 1,500-word essay describing the attributes of their city, a scale model, a seven-minute presentation and Q&A, and their project plan.
A total of 46 teams competed in the Kentucky regional. The final standings included:
- 11th place: Hexacity (Leestown);
- 13th: the Amara Cities of Aelius and Lunarc (Leestown);
- 16th: Sterling City (Leestown);
- 20th: City of Tomorrow (Hayes);
- 37th: New-Topia (Leestown).
The Leestown groups were guided by teacher Melissa Graham, and the Hayes students by teacher Ashlee VanHoose.
“I was thrilled to have them and was amazed and very proud of how well they did. I’m really looking forward to seeing them grow in the program and become competitive for that top spot in the future,” said Joe Percefull of Oldham County Schools, the regional coordinator for Future City in Kentucky. “I hope that more Lexington schools will give the competition a shot. They will really enjoy what it does for their kids!”