Citta Sotto Ghiaccio, a city located under the oceans of one of Jupiter’s moons, will likely be a hot vacation spot for earthlings still cooped up on the third rock from the sun in the year 2537.
Its spaceport for interplanetary travel and subway system of water pressure-propelled pods help support a thriving economy sustained by tourism. The big draw is several Envirodomes, which simulate earth’s terrain like savannahs, rainforests and deserts, and visitors get a kick out of the numerous hydrogen fuel cell-powered fitness centers.
Seventh-graders at Hubble Middle School in Wheaton picture the locale as a perfected, peaceful space haven. Judges at the Midwest Regional Future Cities competition must have agreed, because the model took top honors last month, securing the group a place among 33 middle schools to compete nationally last week in Washington.
Future Cities is a national program sponsored by the engineering community to interest students in science and engineering through hands-on projects.
“It’s an authentic experience on something many of these kids are interested in doing later in life. It exposes them to the process of growing a city from beginning to end,” said Nina Koelpin, Future Cities coach and gifted specialist at Hubble. “They start off mapping their model on the computer game Sims City, where they learn things like if taxes are too high, people will move away. They get to see how their concept plays out.”
In Sims City, players have to gradually build infrastructures like power sources, government, education, transportation systems, waste management, health and pollution control, communication networks and recreational outlets; zone land as commercial, industrial or residential; and maintain natural resources to keep residents happy.
“There was a lot of demand for an airport, and everyone got frustrated when they requested a baseball park and we weren’t building one,” team leader Jack Cavanaugh said. “There were so many things to keep track of, and we had to be realistic about how needed certain services were or how much money we’d have to invest in them.”
Once the computer-generated futuristic city is completed, it is mapped, and students choose a portion to build a scaled, 3-D tabletop model. Future Cities club members met twice a week after school to brainstorm ideas and work on the project.
Citta Sotto Ghiaccio, or City Under Ice, is comprised of separate protective domes that can withstand water pressure and split the community up into residential, commercial and industrial districts.
The two teams, which both won awards in various design and infrastructure categories, were honored during a Wheaton City Council meeting last month.
The seventh-grade regional first-place winners are Jack Cavanaugh, Bradley Disbrow, Peter Ericksen, Gregory Grabarek and Thomas Samaritano; eighth-grade regional sixth-place honors went to Will Kay, Joey Kieckhafer, Mackenzie Kirkman, Alex Lemna, Amanda Meyer and Janelle Niska. The advisers are Nina Koelpin and engineer William Kirkman.