| Project Plan
Goals
I have established an engineering club in my school. The club works
each year to compete in the National Engineers Week Future City competition.
Approximately 75 students in grades 6-8 participate in this project.
They work after school for four hours per week, for five months. The
mission of the competition is to provide a fun and exciting educational
engineering program for middle school students using a stimulating engineering
challenge to portray their vision of a city of the future.
Relevance
The Future City Competition is a team-based program consisting of students,
a teacher and a practicing engineer mentor. Throughout the competition,
students learn to apply their knowledge to real-world situations, while
seeing firsthand how an engineer turns ideas into reality. Future City
asks middle school students to create cities of the future, first on
computer, using the video game SimCity 3000 Unlimited, and then in large
tabletop models. They write a city abstract and an essay on using engineering
to solve an important social need this yearēs theme was creating an
čEngineering Feasibility Planī to redevelop an abandoned strip mall.
Then they present and defend their cities before a panel of engineer
judges at the competition.
Through participation in this program, students develop
their problem-solving skills, as well as their ability to work as a
team. They learn how to conduct research and develop their presentation
skills. As they begin to design and build their city, the team members
apply various math and scientific principles to address practical problems,
thereby increasing their awareness of community-related issues.
Measurement
There are many factors used when determining the success of this program
in my school. The number of students who commit to working after school
for five months of the year on the project has grown from 10, in the
first year, to 75. A panel of engineers, using the attached rubrics,
judges the projects. During the last 10 years, my team has consistently
scored among the top five schools in Michigan. The team has achieved
two state championships, finishing fourth at the National Finals in
Washington, DC. A number of students who have participated in this project
have gone on to some of the top schools for engineering, including MIT,
the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University to pursue
a career in engineering. These students credit their participation in
the Future City project, in middle school, with sparking their interest
in engineering. |
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Challenges
As with any project-based learning activity, there are multiple challenges
involved.
- A program like the Future City Project, which includes activities
that take place off-site, can present some logistical challenges.
The program had to provide for the participants and coordinate a lot
of paperwork from students including Student Information Forms, Field
Trip Permission Forms and Media Release Forms. Instructor time and
energy is significant and can amount to more than one teacher can
manage. I also faced the additional challenges of getting support
from the administration in the district to provide sufficient monetary
assistance. Due to budget constraints, only one teacher can receive
a small stipend to run this program for 75-100 students. Therefore,
it is difficult to recruit other staff members to assist with the
project. To combat this, I have recruited parents who have a background
in engineering or architecture to volunteer time to work with a committee
of students from the team.
- There is very little money in the budget to provide building materials
for the studentsē project. I have had to send out letters to the parents
asking for donations of building materials for the students.
- Having 75 students work together on one project creates some challenges
in dividing the work among the team members. The students were divided
into smaller committees with specific tasks. Each committee selected
one or two chairpersons. I met with the committee chairs once per
week to assist with any problems they were experiencing.
- When the program was first introduced in our school, the students
had a very poor understanding of quality work. Each year, I now save
examples of outstanding projects. I then challenge the students to
equal or surpass what has already been done.
- Students in middle school, generally, lack time-management skills.
I had to facilitate the construction of a viable timeline for completing
the different aspects of the project.
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