Introduction: (Initial Observation)

The future city project is for seventh- and eighth-grade students to foster interest in math, science, and engineering through hands-on, real world applications.
The goal for this project is to provide a fun and exciting educational engineering program for seventh- and eighth-grade students that combines a stimulating engineering challenge with a “hands-on” application to present their vision of a city of the future.

During this project you use your own imagination and ideas to:

• Plan a future city.
• Build a computer model of the city.
• Build a scale model of one city section.
• Write a 500 word city based essay.
• Write a 100 word summary statement.
• Make a 7 minute city presentation.
  You will learn to:
• Apply technical knowledge to real world situations.
• See first hand how engineers turn ideas into reality.
• Use a popular award-winning computer game, SimCity2000в and the Urban Renewal add on software, to design their future city.
• Build a scale model of a city section.
• Learn how engineers must present their designs by writing an essay, preparing a summary and making a verbal presentation explaining their design.

Information Gathering:

Find out about changes in cities in the past. Read books, magazines or ask professionals who might know in order to learn about the needs of a city. Keep track of where you got your information from.

Need Inspiration?

Try looking up some of these topics. When searching the Internet, you should use more than just 1 search engine. Try a multi-engine search like Search.com.

New beliefs, new problems and new concerns leads to new solutions and designs. 

Question/ Purpose:

The purpose of this project is to study and make a model of possible designs in future cities as a result of changes in human needs, culture and resources.

Identify Variables:

Some of the factors that may affect the design of future cities are:

1. Increase in population
2. Shortage in land for farming and housing
3. Shortage on food
4. Shortage of oil, gas and other fossil base and organic fuels
5. Pollution (Air, soil, water)
6. Increase in the cost of living (food, housing, transportation,…)
7. …
8. …Think and add to this list

Hypothesis:

My hypothesis is that in future cities:

1. Buildings will be larger and rooms will be smaller. This will maximize the use of land and minimizes the energy used for heating and cooling.
2. Cars will be replaced by trains and modern public transportation. Trains will never stop and passengers will get in the train and get off the train while the train is traveling at 200 miles per hour.
3. Roofs of buildings will be transformed to farms or solar energy cells.
4. Appliances, buildings and transportation equipment will all be controlled and managed by computer.
5. Traditional schools will be closed and all training will be done at home and by modern audio visual computerized system
6. Hospitals and doctors will offer remote access service, so you can be at home while being examined and treated.
7. Shipping companies will do the most part of shipping, not the people themselves.
8. … Think and add to this list

Experiment Design:

You will design and build a virtual model of a future city. To build a model you can use paper, paint, plastic, glue and other objects that can be found at home. For more advanced levels you may also use foam board and balsa wood.

In this model, plastic cups, plastic bowel, ribbons, light bulbs and many other household items are being used. Each item represents or simulates an element in the city of the future. Small labels and signs are added to make it easier for curios viewers to identify each object.

When you are designing your city of future, first think and write down the description that you can imagine about the city of the future. Then use that description as a base for your cities elements. Some of your possible considerations for the city of the future can be:

Factors to Consider

1. ARCO LOGY
2. AIRPORT
3. CITY ECONOMICS
4. CITY HALL
5. CITY LOCATION
6. CITY MANAGEMENT
7. CITY GROWTH
8. CITY PLANNING
9. CONSTRUCTION COSTS
10. CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
11. EDUCATION SYSTEM
12. EFFICIENCY IMPROVING TECHNIQUES
13. FIRE
14. FOOD PRODUCTION
15. INSULATION FOR EFFICIENCY
16. NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION
17. HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT
18. JAILS & penitentiary 
19. LIVING IN/ON THE OCEAN
20. LIVING ON A PLANET
21. LIVING IN OUTER SPACE
22. MANUFACTURING FACILITIES
23. MATERIAL SELECTION
24. MINERALS AND MINING
25. OFFICE COMPLEXES
26. POLICE
27. POWER DISTRIBUTION
28. POWER PRODUCTION

1. • FUSION
   • GAS TURBINE
   • HYDRO TURBINE
   • MICROWAVE
   • OCEAN
   • SOLAR PANEL
   • STEAM TURBINE
   • BIO-MAS
   • COAL
   • GAS
   • GEOTHERMAL
   • NUCLEAR
   • WIND

29. RESEARCH AND RESEARCH FACILITIES
30. RISK AND RISK TAKING
31. RETAIL STORES
32. ROAD CONSTRUCTION
33. SEA PORT
34. SEWAGE TREATMENT
35. SHIPPING
36. STEEL PRODUCTION
37. SUBWAY CONSTRUCTION
38. TRANSPORTATION COSTS
39. TRANSPORTATION ENERGY CYCLE

1. • AIRPLANE
   • BUS
   • CAR
   • SHIP
   • TRUCK

40. TRASH COLLECTION AND DISPOSAL
41. TRAVEL TO OUTER SPACE
42. UNIVERSITIES & CONTINUING EDUCATION
43. USE OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
44. WATER SUPPLY
45. WATER TREATMENT
46. WHOLESALE WAREHOUSES
47. ZONING

This city model has a focus on using wind energy and solar energy. Metallic silver and metallic gold paints are used to give a more realistic look to the elements of the town. Empty cardboard boxes, covered with paint and foils are used to show the buildings. Wind turbines in the model are made from color paper.

Where there is no air or no clean air, human may need to live in closed glass buildings and produce his own food and oxygen in a limited space.
Click here to see more pictures of models made by other students.

Remember that you will also need to write a 500 word city based essay, write a 100 word summary statement and make a 7 minute city presentation.

Materials and Equipment:

Some of the material that you can use for your model are:

1. Plain and color paper
2. Aluminum foil
3. plastic sheets
4. plastic cups and plates
5. plastic plants
6. paper tubes (from paper towel)
7. Boxes (Paper or cardboard)
8. Styrofoam sheets
9. Water based paints
10. Spray paints (Can not be used indoor, adult supervision is required)
11. Plastic containers
12. Soda bottle (Empty)
13. Glue (Elmer Glue)
14. Foam board (This needs to be cut with a sharp and dangerous utility knife. If you want to use them, adults help and supervision is required)
15. Balls in different sizes

Results of Experiment (Observation):

Write about what you have learned during this project.

Calculations:

If you do any calculation in the design of your town, write your calculations in this section.

Summery of Results:

Summarize the purpose and explain the design of your town in a few statements.

Conclusion:

Using the trends in your experimental data and your experimental observations, try to answer your original questions. Is your hypothesis correct? Now is the time to pull together what happened, and assess the experiments you did.

Related Questions & Answers:

What you have learned may allow you to answer other questions. Many questions are related. Several new questions may have occurred to you while doing experiments. You may now be able to understand or verify things that you discovered when gathering information for the project. Questions lead to more questions, which lead to additional hypothesis that need to be tested.

Possible Errors:

If you did not observe anything different than what happened with your control, the variable you changed may not affect the system you are investigating. If you did not observe a consistent, reproducible trend in your series of experimental runs there may be experimental errors affecting your results. The first thing to check is how you are making your measurements. Is the measurement method questionable or unreliable? Maybe you are reading a scale incorrectly, or maybe the measuring instrument is working erratically.

If you determine that experimental errors are influencing your results, carefully rethink the design of your experiments. Review each step of the procedure to find sources of potential errors. If possible, have a scientist review the procedure with you. Sometimes the designer of an experiment can miss the obvious.

References:

List of References