A team from Pacific Middle School in Des Moines took fourth place in the Washington State Future City Regional Competition. The team of Nathan Schulz, Charlie Brandt and Kyle Evanger competed against nineteen teams from across the region, including five other teams from Pacific.

Future City is a national competition in which teams of middle school students design and build models of cities set at least 150 years in the future. The competition is part of National Engineering Week held in February each year.

This is the fourth year Pacific has competed, but the first time a team made it to the finals.

“We are very proud of Nathan, Charlie and Kyle and their accomplishments. They did an excellent job in their presentation,” says Sandy Gady, who teaches Design and Engineering at Pacific.

The project introduces students to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) concepts, as well as Career and Technical Education skills such as working successfully in groups, time management, and clear communication.

Students have an opportunity to experience what engineers do in their work: identify problems; brainstorm ideas; design solutions; test, retest and build; and share their results.

Students used SimCity 4 Deluxe software to design their virtual cities. They had to identify basic services and features, zoning and city infrastructures, and the city location.

Each team member was required to write a 1,000-word research essay on alternative energy and a 500- word narrative essay identifying and highlighting the features of their city.

The best components of each individual essay were combined to create the team essays submitted to the competition.

Models are constructed at home, using predominantly recycled materials.

At the competition, students have seven minutes to present to a panel of 3 to 5 judges, outlining their city and its energy, transportation and community features. Judges may ask questions about a variety of aspects of the model, such as waste disposal systems, transportation, and engineering innovations.

Models made by all six Pacific teams will be on display on May 17 at the Pacific Middle School Science Night.