Queen of Angels Students Head to National Future City Competition

After winning the Philadelphia regionals last month, more than 40 students from The Queen of Angels Regional Catholic School will head to Washington D.C. this weekend for the Future City Competition national finals.

The Future City Competition is a project in which students in grades 6-8 build cities of the future using aspects of math, science, writing, art and public speaking. The students create these fictional cities using SimCity4 Deluxe. Students participating in the project utilize the following skills:

• Apply math and science concepts to real-world issues
• Develop writing, public speaking, problem solving, and time management skills
• Research and propose solutions to engineering challenges
• Discover different types of engineering and explore careers options
• Learn how their communities work and become better citizens
• Develop strong teamwork skills

The Queen of Angels student have come up with the idea for a city called Naibhora, India, which is supposed to be modeled in the year 2173. Their engineering team came up with the idea to prevent flooding during the monsoon season, while also gathering, cleaning and storing water for use during the dry months. Their idea falls within this year's theme of "Rethink Runoff," where stormwater management is the key.

Some of the Queen of Angels team includes eighth-graders Nathaniel Klein, twin brothers Greg and Jack Galbreath, Maura O'Malley, Kelly Ann Ryan, Kayla Sawick and Harry Scanlon.

The grand prize is a trip to Space Camp.