The students of Olson Middle School took a trip into the future on Jan. 18, and they didn’t even need Doc Brown or the DeLorean to do it.
As part of the Future City Competition, students were tasked with designing a metropolis of the future from the city’s infrastructure to its appearance. After creating models and presentations, students traveled to Rutgers University in New Brunswick on Jan. 18 to compete against 80 other schools in New Jersey.
“I’m so impressed with the work they have done,” Superintendent George Rafferty said. “The skills these students have shown in working as a team to put these projects together, to present their work really are people skills that they will use in the future. They’ve done an excellent job.”
The Future City Competition is a national, project-based learning experience where students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade imagine, design and build cities of the future. Students work as a team with an educator and engineer mentor to plan cities using SimCity software, research and write solutions to an engineering problem, build tabletop scale models with recycled materials and present their ideas before judges at regional competitions in January. Regional winners represent their region at the national finals in Washington, D.C. this month.
Teams are judged on a variety of criteria ranging from best futuristic city to best transportation system to most sustainable buildings. Of the 80 schools that presented at Rutgers, the group of students from Tabernacle placed ninth. The Board of Education took time to recognize the students’ efforts at its Jan. 28 meeting.
In other news:
• The board approved a contract for Rafferty for the period from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2018 at an annual salary of $145,000.
• Due to weather events that caused school closures, the last day of school for students and teachers is now scheduled for Monday, June 23. Rafferty said he will meet with the board and Tabernacle Education Association to discuss having school be opened on Friday, March 7, which is presently scheduled as an in-service day for teachers and a day off for students. He said he would have those discussions before the board’s next meeting on Feb. 18 so parents have ample time to make arrangements.
• Schools will be closed Friday, Feb. 14 for a teacher in-service day and Monday, Feb. 17 in recognition of President’s Day.
