Wisconsin Middle Schoolers Design a Floating City for the Future City Competition; Top Team Advances to Finals in Washington, DC

Milwaukee, WI – Each year, middle school students are challenged to help make the world a better place, and this year’s challenge was to build a floating city, “Above the Current.” Competing teams researched solutions for their Future Cities to address an authentic, real-world question: How can we make the world a better place?

Working in a team with an educator and STEM mentor, students are challenged to design a city one hundred years into the future. They research today’s public spaces and write a city essay about their solutions and city design. Students then bring their ideas to life by building a tabletop scale model of their city using recycled materials on a budget of $100.

“STEM Forward is excited to offer the Future City Competition for the past 30 years to ignite STEM passion in middle school kids. This program shows real-world reasons to become an engineer and encourages many local students to pursue STEM education and careers,” commented Theresa Wolf, Future City Program Manager at STEM Forward.

This year, 50 teams competed at the Wisconsin Regional 2024-25 Future City Competition hosted by STEM Forward on January 18, 2025. We are pleased to announce the five finalists:

· First Place: Team Nuevo Comienzo – Waukesha STEM Academy, Waukesha

· Second Place: Team West Glacia – Whitman Middle School, Wauwatosa

· Third Place: Team Acque Preziose – Golda Meir, Milwaukee Public Schools

· Fourth Place (tie): Team Terrapin Island – Mount Calvary Lutheran, Waukesha

· Fourth Place (tie): Team Isla Soleada – Longfellow Middle School, Wauwatosa

Congratulations to the five finalists and twenty-two special award winners! Volunteer judges were amazed at the talent of these energetic students as they presented their ideas on building a city on the water that keeps their citizens and the environment healthy and safe.

The Future City program has a far-reaching impact, engaging over 67,000 students from 1,800 schools worldwide. As part of Engineers Week, the first-place team, Nuevo Comienzo from Waukesha STEM Academy, will travel to the 2025 Future City Finals Competition in Washington, D.C., from February 16-20, 2025, where they will compete alongside teams from forty regions in the United States, Canada, China, and Nigeria. We wish the Wisconsin team good luck and hope they bring home a win!

“The Future Cities program ignites the imagination of middle school students, showing them how engineering shapes the world around them. By engaging in hands-on projects, students gain a deeper understanding of urban challenges and the innovative solutions engineers provide. This program not only fosters awareness but also inspires the next generation of problem solvers to envision and create sustainable cities. We are eternally grateful to STEM Forward for continuing this program and for everything that it has offered our students over the past fifteen years in which we have participated.” Stated Joshua Hoffmann, Science Facilitator at Waukesha STEM Academy.

We could not have done it without the help of the over 200 STEM professional volunteers and Milwaukee School of Engineering student volunteers! For more information about Future City and volunteer opportunities, visit www.futurecity.org. Are you interested in creating a Future City team at your school? Reach out to Theresa Wolf at twolf@stmforward.org and visit our website at www.stemforward.org/future-city-competition.

About STEM Forward
STEM Forward is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and metro Milwaukee’s leading K-12 STEM education and outreach provider. STEM Forward’s programs, events, and activities inspire local youth to pursue STEM careers and provide a talent pipeline to businesses in southeastern Wisconsin.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.