Colleen Feller (left), Future City Competition Lead Coordinator, presents Renae Kuehl and Dave Montebello with Above and Beyond Award
Congratulations to the many students and volunteers who participated in this year’s Future City Competition (FCC), a national program that lets 6th to 8th graders do all the things engineers do such as identify problems, brainstorm ideas, and develop solutions.
Designed to help middle school students learn more about engineering in an imaginative and interactive way, SRF has proudly supported the competition for almost a decade. Nearly 50 teams from across the state participated in this year’s Minnesota Regional FCC, whose theme was The Power of Public Space. Through a research essay and a physical city model, participating students designed innovative, multiuse public spaces to serve their future city’s population. Students worked as a team with an educator and engineer mentor to develop a project plan; create a virtual city design with SimCity software; research and write a proposed solution to an engineering challenge; build a tabletop city model with recycled materials; and present their ideas before a panel of judges that included engineers, architects, city planners, and other professionals.
This year, 27 SRF staff members – including SRF President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Montebello and Chief Operating Officer Marie Cote – volunteered for the regional competition as team mentors, competition judges, special award judges, essay judges, and Sim City judges. SRF also sponsored an award for Best Transportation System, which went to “Hans Landing” from Grandview Middle School.
In honor of its support and record number of volunteers over the years, the Future City Competition recently recognized SRF with the Above and Beyond Award. A special thank you to SRF’s Renae Kuehl (event co-chair), whose commitment for the past eight years remains a driving force behind both the competition and SRF’s involvement.
Photos from the competition (credit Tim Davis, Consolidated Media).