Future City Pittsburgh Volunteer Opportunities
The Pittsburgh Region is beginning its tenth year in the National Future City Competition. The number of Middle Schools that have registered in the Pittsburgh Regional Competition has grown each year. The Competition's growth is testimony to the program's unique capacity to challenge students to learn and test new concepts related to engineering and city planning, to apply the mathematics and science they have already learned, to explore their imaginations about what our Cities will be like in the future, and to build an example of the result using ingenuity and their own hands. But another facet of the Pittsburgh Regional Future City Competition that has allowed it to expand is the associated growth of a cadre of dedicated volunteers. Because without volunteers, there would be no Competition.
Volunteer as an Engineer Mentor - Starting in late August, the Competition begins to recruit volunteers to act as the Engineer Mentor for each of the schools that would like to enroll. The Mentor meets with the student team and the teacher at regular intervals from October through Competition Day, on Saturday, January 24, 2009. Serving as a Mentor may require from 30, to as many as forty hours of your time, and although there must be only one official Engineer Mentor, we may assign two mentors as co-mentors at some schools, to spread the load and increase the student's contact with engineers.
The mentor's first responsibility is to guide the students through, what might be described as, the project development process. The students must become familiar with the Competition's requirements and rules, and the schedule for deliverables. The students will need to develop their own plan and schedule for completion of their project and divide and assign responsibilities for various tasks. And of course, the students must assess unexpected difficulties and occurrences and revise their plan and schedule. The mentor's second responsibility is to teach the students about the various engineering disciplines, and the role that engineers play in building and maintaining a city. Before the deadline for school enrollment, October 15, 2008, we estimate that we will need to identify as many as seventy volunteers to act as Engineer Mentors.
Volunteer as a SimCity Disk Judge - The teams will submit their SimCity disks containing their city design for the first round of the Competition on November 18, 2008. Once a volunteer has gained some experience in using the SimCity software, it takes about 15 minutes to judge a City. Since each team's SimCity disk is judged by three different judges, and we expect as many as 70 schools to submit them, we anticipate a need for ten to twenty disk judges. There will be an evening meeting at the Carnegie Science Center in late November for judge orientation and distribution of the city files and SimCity software. Judging can be done at the Carnegie Science Center at that meeting, as well as at work or home with a suitable computer. As judges complete their scoring they will submit the scores by internet on the Future City website.
Volunteer as an Essay Judge - On December 19, 2008, the Essays and City Abstracts are due for the second round of the Competition. Each essay and abstract will be judged by three different judges, with each judge scoring several submittals. We anticipate a need for a minimum of twenty essay judges. Each judge will work independently, scoring their essays and reporting the scores by internet on the Future City website.
Volunteer as a Presentation Aide or Judge - Finally, on Saturday, January 24, 2009 the final competition will be held at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. Based on past experience and based on constraints at our venue, we anticipate that we will need more than 120 volunteers to fill the following positions:
Presentation Judges – Judge the presentation, knowledge of the city, and model
Special Awards Judges – Judge model cities for special awards such as Best Use of Steel, Best Transportation System, etc. as sponsored by various companies and technical societies
Specification Judge – Verify that the models and presentation aides meet dimensional and technical specifications
Model Movers – Move models from the lobby area to presentation areas and back, maintaining schedule
Room Managers / Timers – Control the judging process in a presentation room, passing out scoring materials and timing the actual presentation and question period. Critical to maintaining the judging schedule
Score Keepers – Receive scoring information, check it and input the data into Excel.
Control (Guides/Security) Ensure that contestants and volunteers are in the correct places. Provide general assistance in solving problems.
Still and video camera operators - provide a public relations interface with local press and television
Our goal is to identify all volunteers and make assignments by December 31, 2008. Note that the Volunteer Committee makes every effort to assign volunteers to the requested volunteer function, but you may be requested to help in another role.
Add Your Name to Our Volunteers List - This coming year's Future City Competition will need the help of almost 250 volunteers, and we welcome the help of anyone who is interested in volunteering their time. To qualify as an Engineer Mentor, you must be an engineer and have attended a Teacher/Mentor Orientation Meeting. Engineering students from local universities will be permitted to serve as a co-mentor. To qualify as a Presentation Judge, you must have attended one of the Presentation Aides’ and Judges’ Orientation Meetings or judged presentations in one or more previous competitions. Engineers are preferred but not required. So if you are interested in registering as a volunteer for the 2009 Future City Competition, or if you would just like to get on our mailing list, get more information, and decide later, please use the link below.
For additional information about volunteer opportunities contact:
This page was last updatedWerner Loehlein, Future City Mentor Coordinator, werner.c.loehlein@usace.army.mil (412-395-7363)
Bill Pruss, Volunteer Coordinator, BillPruss@aol.com (724-744-7658)
