Future City

2014-2015 Research Essay

Feeding Future Cities: Select one vegetable and one protein and design a way to grow
enough of each within your future city limits to feed your citizens.
Many thousands of years ago, humans learned to domesticate animals and grow plants
for food. Because we no longer needed to hunt and gather, we could stay in one place
and start to build cities. It was the beginning of civilization. Today, agriculture is the
largest global enterprise on earth. And while some regions still farm in ways similar to
our ancient ancestors, for most of the world the mechanization of planting and
harvesting, chemical fertilization and pest control, advanced irrigation, and other modern
farming tools and techniques led to increased crop outputwhich, in turn, became a
major contributing factor to rapid population growth. By 1900, the global population was
roughly 1.7 billion people. In 2050 it is expected to exceed 9.5 billion. Thats more than
450% increase in the total number of people over the last 150 years. With billions more
mouths to feed, there are increasing pressures on our global food supplies: less
farmable land, more water pollution, growing water scarcity, increased fuel costs
(making importing and exporting foods more expensive), pesticide resistance, and the
growth of megacities, to name just a few. In order to feed the world in the future, we will
have to come up with smart new ways to grow our food much closer to where we live.
Your challenge: Choose two foods (one vegetable and one protein) and design a way
to grow enough of each within your future city borders to feed all of your citizens for at
least one growing season. Taking into account your citys size and location, you must
consider the critical elements needed to grow food including light, climate, air quality,
space, water, soil, and nutrients.
***Use these questions to help your students research and write an essay that meets
competition requirements.***
1)
2)

How is food currently grown or produced?

Where does food come from? What mix of your food is grown locally?
Regionally? Globally?

3) What are the benefits and drawbacks of growing food locally? Regionally? Globally?
4) What is the difference between a vegetable food and a protein food? (For purposes of
this essay, vegetable food is anything that is a plant-based crop and protein food
is anything that is a protein-based crop (plant or animal).

5) What does a food need to provide to be considered nutritionally significant?

6) How does your urban farm environment meet the growing needs of your chosen
foods (e.g., light, water, nutrients, pest management, etc.)? Can they be grown in the
same environment or do you need more than one design or location?
7) How does the weather and other environmental considerations in your city affect your
farm design, the crops you choose, and how much you can grow?
8) What innovative and futuristic designs are used in your urban farm environment?
9) Is your farm environment energy efficient?
10) Where is your urban farm environment located?
11) How can you represent your farm in your future city model?
12) As you develop your farm, how could you use the engineering design process to
help you work through problems (define the problem; brainstorm solutions; select
a solution; design, test, and redesign; and share results)?
13)

Is your essay organized, well-written, free of grammar and spelling errors, and no
more than 1,000 words (not counting the title)?

Draft Essay Using the Design Process

When engineers design solutions to problems, they go through a process of
brainstorming, testing different ideas, learning from mistakes, and trying again. This is
called the engineering design process. The steps of the engineering design process are:
1) Define the problem to solve;

2) Brainstorm various solutions;

3) Select a solution;
4) Design, build, test and redesign solution; and
5)
Share results.
Essay Outline
1. INTRODUCTION: DEFINE THE PROBLEM
Briefly introduce your future city and describe its population, location, climate, landscape
and general layout. Explain what problem(s) your future city solved by growing two
foods within the city limits.
2. BODY: DESCRIBE YOUR SOLUTION
Introduce the two foods youve chosen, one vegetable and one protein (either plant or
animal), and explain why you selected them.
Explain how the foods meet the nutritional needs and food preferences of your citys
residents.
Describe the farm environment(s) you designed to grow your foods. Explain how it
works, where it is located, and why its the right solution for your future city.
Explain how your design meets your two foods basic requirements for light, soil, water,
nutrients, temperature, air quality, and space and if these needs change during the
growing season (e.g., from planting or birth to harvest).
Share how your farm environment(s) produces enough of each food to supply all of your
citizens for at least one growing season. (Note: Your two crops will not be the only food
available to your citizens, but you do need to make sure you produce enough for
everyone.)
Explain how your urban farm solution is energy efficient.
Discuss the tradeoffs/compromises connected with your urban farm and how your
design reduces or eliminates these tradeoffs.
Describe the engineering disciplines involved in your solution and the role of the one or
two engineers you believe to be most useful in your solution.
3. CONCLUSION: SUMMARIZE YOUR SOLUTION
Summarize why the urban farm you designed is a good way to provide local, healthy
abundant foods for your future city
Resources can be found here: http://futurecity.org/essay/resources
Rules and Rubric can be found here: http://futurecity.org/essay/rules

Designing the Virtual City:

SimCity Competition Requirements: All teams must design their city using the
Whitewater Valley region. Teams can choose to build their city from any of the five sites
within the region. You will select this region from the menu options when you create a
new city.

While you design your city use these questions as guides:

1)

How will you lay out your city? Where will you place your industrial, commercial,
and residential zones? How much space will you allot to the different areas? Does it
matter where they are placed? Why or why not?
2)
What services (police, fire, medical, education) will your city provide?
3)
How many parks and recreation areas do you want in your city? If you provide a
lot of parks, is there some other service you cant provide?
4)
How will you power your city? All wind? Coal? What are the costs and tradeoffs
of the different power sources?
5)
Do your Sims have water? Is it clean?
6)
How will your city dispose of waste and recycle?
7)
How will you manage pollution (water and air) in your city?
8)
As you design your city, how could you use the design process to help you work
through problems (define the problem to solve; brainstorm various solutions; select a
solution; design, build, test and redesign the solution; share results)?
Rules and Rubric can be found here: http://futurecity.org/design/rules

Write the City Narrative:

Students write a narrative (maximum 500 words) describing their future citys key
features and design attributes. The purpose of the City Narrative is to give the judges a
quick overview of the future citys infrastructure and its public services.

Use these questions to help your students write a city description that meets
competition requirements.
1. What basic information should people know about your city (such as the name,
population, age, and location)?
2. What is important to know about your citys physical components (landmarks, parks,
and recreation areas) and infrastructure (transportation, energy, waste disposal,
pollution control)?
3. What services (such as police, fire, medical, education) does your city offer?
4. What features make your city innovative and unique?
5. Is your narrative organized, well written, free of spelling errors, and no more than 500
words (not counting the title)?
Tips & Resources
Read City Narratives from past participants in the Showcase.http://futurecity.org/gallery
(Sort by National Winner and City Narrative.)
Think of the City Narrative as a marketing piece. What unique features does your city
offer? Why would someone want to live in your city? Are there any special benefits to
living in your city?
Rules and Rubric can be found here: http://futurecity.org/narrative/rules

Building The Model:

Students build a physical model of a section of their city using recycled materials that
has at least one moving part. The model does not need to be an exact building-bybuilding duplication of the virtual design. Rather, the purpose of the model is to give a
three-dimensional, creative representation of an area that best represents the teams
vision of their future city.

Use these questions to help your students build a model that meets competition
requirements.
1.
What scale would work best for your model?

2. What features would best represent your city (buildings, zones, landforms,
interconnectivity, and infrastructure such as transportation, energy, waste disposal,
pollution control)?
3. How can you show that your city is well planned, accessible, and considers the
environment?
4. How will you include your solution to the Feeding Future Cities essay in your model?
5. What makes your city innovative and futuristic? How can you show your futuristic
ideas are based on science and engineering?
6. What recycled materials could you use? How could you use them in creative ways?
7. What will your moving part(s) do? How do they represent an important element of
your city design?
8. How will you power your moving part(s)? Can you easily repeat the movement?
9. As you build your model, how could you use the engineering design process to help
you work through problems (define the problem to solve; brainstorm various solutions;
select a solution; design, build, test and redesign the solution; share results)?
Rules:
1)
Choose a scale that works for your city design. In engineering, scale is used to
describe proportion. Proportion is how the size of one thing compares with another.
There is no set scale for the model. The team decides the scale based on their
design. They will need to create a scale key, such as, 1/4 = 1.0.
2)
Research Essay. Be sure to represent your teams solution to the Feeding Future
Cities Essay in the model.
3)
Remember to add at least one moving part. The moving part is an excellent
opportunity to explore the physics of simple sources of power, such as: Rubber
bands, Heat, Weights, Springs, Batteries and simple circuitry, Pulleys, Folded paper,
Light and/or solar pop-up constructions power

Rules and Rubric can be found here: http://futurecity.org/build/rules

Team Presentation:
Students give a 7 minute presentation discussing features of their future city followed by
a 5 - 8 minute question and answer period from the judges (overall time will not exceed
15 minutes).

Use these questions to help your students prepare a presentation that meets
competition requirements.
1)

What is important for people to know about your city (e.g., name, location,
features, benefits, how infrastructure works)?
2)
What makes your city innovative and futuristic?
3)
How is your solution to the Tomorrow's Transit essay part of your city design?
4)
How will you use your physical model to illustrate your citys design and features?
5)
What visual aids and props will you use to enhance your presentation?
6)
What types of engineering are used in your city?
7)
How did you use the engineering design process when planning your city?
8)
How can you demonstrate teamwork (e.g., share presentation tasks, support
each other during the presentation, display equal amount of knowledge)?
9)
How will you practice presenting your ideas and answering questions from the
judges?

Rules and Rubric can be found here: http://futurecity.org/present/rules