Grade 3 and 4 students at Robert Little Public School are basking in the glow of receiving a major recognition for creating a sustainable city model as part of an international engineering competition.
The Acton school took part in
The Future City Experience, a design challenge that uses the engineering design process to have students research, design and build a model of a city 100 years into the future. The goal is to design a waste-free city using the principles of a circular economy including examples of how the city reuses waste resources to keep its residents safe and healthy.
There were four categories in the competition: ‘Innovative Design’, ‘Inspirtech’ (inspirational technology), ‘Closest to Zero Waste’ and ‘The City I’d Live In’. Robert Little PS captured the ‘Inspirtech’ award. The school spent several months creating the 3D model before presenting it to Future City Experience engineers in May.
Future City is a free project-based learning program where Canadian students in Grade 6, 7 and 8 imagine, research, design and build cities of the future. Each year students are presented with a different theme. The Future City Experience is an adaptation of the
Future City Competition and allows participation from both in-class and online learning models. To accommodate Robert Little PS, the class was added to the higher grades competitive field.
Teacher Michelle Mattocks says the students should be so proud of themselves and what they accomplished.
“I hope that my students have learned about some of the many different aspects of engineering and the engineering design process,” she says. “I hope they have learned how important it is to eliminate and reduce environmental waste. The choices people are making today directly impact climate change and reduce our green space. We need to educate others and be the ones that create positive change.”
In addition to being able to participate in a major competition, the project dovetailed with the curriculum and
HDSB’s 2020-2024 Multi-Year Plan expectations.
“This project connects to HDSB's Multi-Year Plan in the area of Environmental Leadership. It gave us opportunities to deepen our learning around climate change and how we can impact it. We designed the city to be waste free to help with sustainability.”
Mattocks explains the project connected to the Science and Technology curriculum through the STEM investigations by using the engineering design process to design, build and test models and structures.
“It connected to the application, connection and contribution part of the curriculum by investigating how science and technology is used to address real world problems. We also specifically assessed ways in which plants and farming are beneficial to society and the environment.”
“We feel happy and excited that we spent no money to build it and we worked for so long and so hard so it is a real sense of accomplishment,” says Peyton, Robert Little PS student.
“We learned about circular economy and creative ways to repurpose and reuse items such as our building and clothing repurposing plants,” says Alex, Robert Little PS student.
“We also learned about solar, wind and biofuel energy and how plants and farming can support a community,” says Nash, Robert Little PS student.
“As the Principal of a school, it always feels fantastic to see the students take pride in their work and be recognized for their hard work outside our school walls,” says Shannon Green, Principal at Robert Little PS. “Beyond the important connections they made to the HDSB's Multi-Year Plan and the important learning about environmental sustainability, the opportunity for students to collaborate and build something they are so proud of has a meaningful impact on their views of themselves as learners and contributors to society as a whole. The opportunity to display their work in our school foyer has garnered excitement and inspired curiosity in students in other classes.”
