The Future City Competition

Written by: Maggie Li

What Is Future City?

The activity is full of fun, creativity, teamwork, intensity, excitement, but also lots of work. To start out, Future City is an extracurricular activity sponsored by Ms. Jerome. Around the end of the school year in April, students get a chance to apply to get in Future City. To apply, you need to write a paragraph telling why you would be a good team member in Future City. One of your parents also needs to write a paragraph on why you would be a good Future City team member. And finally, three of your teachers need to write a paragraph each on why you’d be a good team member. By the end of the school year, Ms. Jerome lets students know if they’ve been chosen for the 7^th or 8^th grade team, and tells them the next year’s problem (i.e. public space, sewage systems, local food, futuristic transportation, etc.)

Over the summer, students research about a real life city that they could place their “Future City” in, cool innovations that they come to, or cool things they find in their attic or basement that could be useful in the model. Starting from the beginning of the year, both teams work every Wednesday until 3 pm. But since they weren’t getting as much stuff done as they wanted, they started working until 4 pm. By the week of competition, they were working every day after school till 5 pm or 5:30 pm. On the Friday before competition, both teams were scrambling around to finish their models in time.

January 21, 2017

Fog and darkness covered everything on the morning of January 21st. The students had all woken up at 5 in the morning. They were to get to WMS by 6:15 am. Teams Oron Zai (7th grade) and Una Bago (8th grade) boarded the “cool district D vans” (as they called them) heading to K-State through the beautiful sunrise. After setting up their models, the teams got ready for their Presentation Judging and Model Judging. After a busy day, the teams ate lunch outside from food trucks in the comfortable weather. Then, it was time for the announcement of the top five teams. But… before we get there, there’s some drama to be mentioned.

The Dramatic Drama

So both teams were trying to find out where they were supposed to go after lunch, but all they knew was that they were supposed to go to a building across the street for an awards presentation. But they weren’t sure where and why or how. So they were running around and then out of the corner of someone’s eye…they saw the model of Oron Zai getting moved away. So apparently if you get into top five, people move your model to the other building where the awards building is to be held. So… Oron Zai got into top five?!?! The seventh graders were screaming and jumping. But they weren’t supposed to know yet. And they weren’t positive yet if they really got into top five. Nevertheless, they were trying to hold in the excitement and nervousness as they were skipping and jumping along the street like little toddlers going out to get ice cream. The final assembly went on, and the special awards were announced. Usually, West gets at least one special award, so both teams were expecting to be called sooner or later. “The Tech Savvy award goes to… Una Bago!”

 All of the Future City Warhawks were screaming and cheering. After that, it was time for the announcement of the top five teams. “The team winning fifth place is…Evimeria from Prairie Trail Middle School in Olathe, Kansas.” Cheers from jumping people came from one side of the room. The team in fourth place goes to… Zokumanyana from Liberty Memorial Central Middle School in Lawrence, Kansas. More cheers and pictures came, but in the third to back row where team Oron Zai and Una Bago were sitting, tension was rising. If either of the teams got called they’d be in the top three. And if you were chosen you had to present in front of the 56 teams.

The presenters for Oron Zai were already dazed out from nervousness. The announcement kept going, “Third place goes to… Oron Zai from West Middle School in Lawrence, Kansas!” The 7th grade team burst into cheers and jumps as they walked up front to get their pictures taken. Una Bago kept on listening, “Second place goes to… Acacious from Morgan County R-1 School in Stover, MO. And… first place goes to Teretai from Southwest Middle School in Lawrence. Kansas!”

 Una Bago hadn’t gotten into top five, but they had gotten the Tech Savvy award. The top five teams presented, nerve-wracking for Oron Zai, but it went great. Most of the rest of the day was just covered with all the happiness. The teams drove back to school watching the sun set in their “cool district D vans” letting all the stress go and replacing it with joy. It had been a long and fun day, but it was all the result of teamwork, determination, and creativity.