Friday, February 24, 2012

NRMS students impress Board members
with their Future Cities project

New Richmond Middle School’s Future Cities team didn’t get a chance to present their project to state judges but they got excellent reviews from the New Richmond Board of Education when they presented their concept of a city of the future at the board’s Feb. 21 meeting.

After weeks of design and construction, the NRMS students were prevented from participating in the final segment of the 2012 National Engineers Week Future City Competition in Columbus due to hazardous weather conditions.
New Richmond Middle School students (from left) Carter Light, Jesse Noble, Kendal Warren, Katie Schlaak, Kelsey Nichols, Tim Hammer and Erin O'toole and faculty advisor Pamela Hughes (back left) present their 2012 Future Cities project to the New Richmond Board of Education. Hazardous road conditions prevented the students from participating in the state Future Cities competition in Columbus.

“The fifth component was a 7-8 minute presentation in front of a panel of professional engineers and scientists followed by a 7-8 minute question and answer period,” explained faculty advisor Pamela Hughes. “The only icy day of the year so far this winter was the day of the competition which has strict requirements and deadlines.”

Future Cities is a competition for middle school students sponsored by National Engineers Week. The competition has five components: students had to research and write an essay about renewable energy resources, use Sim City software to design a virtual city, write a city narrative providing an overview of the city, construct a scale model of part of the city and make a 7-8 minute presentation in front of a panel of professional engineers and scientists followed by a 7-8 minute question and answer period.

"It's very obvious the amount of time, creativity, research, and thought that went into completing this very in depth project," said Board president Kevin Walriven. "It's this type of effort that proves to us all why we are an 'Excellent with Distinction' School District."

“The Board appreciates the students and their teacher and parents spending time to show and present the Future Cities presentation to the School Board,” said Board vice president David Hawkins. “It is always nice to see presentations from our students so the Board and the public can see some of their outstanding work.”

Mr. Tom Andrews, a former NRMS parent, was the engineer mentor for our team.