NFA Students Design Cities for The Future

In STEM class, Norwood-Fontbonne Academy sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students are designing a city of the future that is combating climate change and the various effects of it while also participating in the Future City Competition. 

"To do this, students have learned about climate change and the various things that are affecting it," noted NFA STEM Teacher Ryan Saul. "Students are doing their own research to find ways to combat climate change so they can apply what they have found in the designs of their cities. For their cities, they need to determine its location, its sources of revenue, how it gets its energy, how it is combating climate change through adaptation and mitigation strategies, how its people get around, and other challenges of creating a functioning city. Once they have this information determined, they need to create a scale model of their city using recycled materials. Within their model they need to incorporate a moving piece within the city. It is quite the challenge but the students are up to the task!

For the Future Cities Competition, NFA teams will describe the unique attributes of their city and their solution to the annual challenge, climate change, in a 1,500-word essay. Teams will also build a physical model of their city (in one piece or multiple segments) using recycled materials and include one moving part. Teams will then give a seven minute presentation about their city’s futuristic innovations and bring them to life. Judges made up of STEM professionals will then ask the team various questions about their city.