UPDATE: Valley Middle School Wins Nationals
Representing the NJ region, three Valley Middle School students, Padraic Burns, Anna Butler, and Sophia Kotik, won first place today at the Future City National Competition during Engineers’ Week.
They also won an award for Excellence in Systems Integration. The team along with their teacher, Judith Vihonski, and engineer-mentor, Robert Akovity, joined thirty-five other teams for the competition and STEM based activities.
The team created Byen Vann, a Norwegian city located on the southwestern coast of Norway. After placing first at the New Jersey Regional Competition at Rutgers on January 23, they began preparing for the national finals. Their entry consists of an elaborate tabletop model built with recyclables, an essay on stormwater management, a narrative, a virtual city and a seven-minute presentation.
Battling frequent floods and mudslides in a city with over eighty-eight inches of annual rainfall, the young engineers devised VIRD, an innovative technology that relies on vegetation, mine storage, and nanotechnology.
In the past, mudslides threatened lives, the economy, the environment, historical preservation, and the conservation of pristine landscape of the city. Besides being an innovator in storm water management, the city features organ robots, pressurized transportation, smart desks, and energy produced by water currents.
This is the 12th consecutive year that Valley Middle School has advanced to the national competition representing the NJ or NYC region. In 2010 and 2011, the team placed second in the nation. In 2012, the team received the Best Model award.
Submitted by Jamie Burns
The Winners!
Future City Fast Facts
- More than 35,000 students from various middle schools have participated nationwide, with over 2,200 teams planning to compete in 36 Regional Finals.
- Annual Future City Competition for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students is held from September, 2012 through February, 2013.
- This year’s essay topic is Rethink Runoff –Design Clean Solutions to Manage Stormwater Pollution. It asks students to analyze the most damaging effects of extreme weather and tasks them with imagining and designing innovative ways to manage stormwater that make city landscapes act similar to natural landscapes.
- Teams are judged on their presentation, virtual city design, physical model, research essay and city narrative.
Other News Links
Click here for National Engineers Week Press Release
Video below shows Valley Middle School being announced as one of the five finalist — at the 5 minute mark
DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG
Original Post Feb 11th, 2013
Oakland’s Valley Middle School Students Will Represent the NJ Region at National Engineering Competition in Washington, DC, February 15-20.
Three Valley Middle School students, Padraic Burns, Anna Butler, and Sophia Kotik, will travel to Washington, DC to represent the NJ region at the Future City National Competition during Engineers” Week. The team along with their teacher, Judith Vihonski, and engineer-mentor, Robert Akovity, will join thirty-five other teams for the competition and STEM based activities.
The team created Byen Vann, a Norwegian city located on the southwestern coast of Norway. After placing first at the New Jersey Regional Competition at Rutgers on January 23, they began preparing for the national finals. Their entry consists of an elaborate tabletop model built with recyclables, an essay on stormwater management, a narrative, and a seven-minute presentation.
Battling frequent floods and mudslides in a city with over eighty-eight inches of annual rainfall, the young engineers devised VIRD, an innovative technology that relies on vegetation, mine storage, and nanotechnology. In the past, mudslides threatened lives, the economy, the environment, historical preservation, and the conservation of pristine landscape of the city. Besides being an innovator in stormwater management, the city features organ robots, pressurized transportation, smart desks, and energy produced by water currents.
This is the 12th consecutive year that Valley Middle School has advanced to the national competition representing the NJ or NYC region. In 2010 and 2011, the team placed second in the nation. In 2012, the team received the Best Model award.
The Future City Competition is a national, project-based learning experience where students in 6th, 7th, and 8th 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™ 4 Deluxe 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, DC in February.
What an amazing accomplishment! You all made Oakland very proud.
GREAT JOB!! Congrats to the students and thank you to the Ms. Vihonski and Mr. Akovity for their guidance.
12 consecutive years advancing to the national competition is truly amazing! Mr Akovity and Ms. Vihonski deserve a lot of credit!