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 7th or 8th 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.
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.
