THE GOOD
NEWS
ARCHBISHOP BELTRAN
| JOBS BOX |
| OKLAHOMA CITY ARCHDIOCESE |
| CONTACT US |
| from March 13, 2005 Saint Charles Teacher Tabbed Tops in Region Archbishop Beltran's Homily for the Pope John Paul II Mass In the Father's Footsteps Annual Catholic Men's Conference Catholic-owed Pirates Alley Receives Governor’s Art Award Saint
Philip Neri Team Makes Strong Run At National Title
in Future City Competition MIDWEST CITY — The showing by St. Philip Neri’s Future City Team would seem to put to rest any idea that Catholic schools with often meager budgets cannot compete with more well funded public schools when it comes to science and math. The students from the Midwest City school returned recently from Washington D.C. where they placed fourth at the National Engineering Week Future City Finals. After completing two days of preliminary judging, the 32 regional winning teams were reduced to the Top 5. The presentation team of Alyssa Grossen, Thalia Nguyen, and Catherine Salazar presented before 1,000 spectators and five celebrity judges. The Saint Philip Neri team consists of 7th and 8th graders, Grossen, Nguyen, Salazar, Alyssa Shaffer, Christine Dao, Raleigh Logan, and Bryce Rood. Assisting the team Wayne Recia, an electrical engineer, Larry Hopper, a city planner, and Saint Philip Neri teachers Sue Hawkins and Monica Schmidlkofer. Now in its second decade, the Future
City Competition is sponsored in part by Engineers Week,
a consortium of more than 100 engineering societies
and major corporations, to increase public awareness
and appreciation of the engineering profession and technology.
The Future City Competition allows seventh and
eight grade students to hone their problem solving skills,
develop teamwork while fostering interests in math,
science and engineering. Principal Bette
Novak said the Saint Philip Neri students have been
working on the five areas of competition since August.
They built a computer model using SimCity 3000
software. Then after consulting with geologists Dr.
Ken Luza and Dr. Stan Krukowski of the Oklahoma Geological
Survey, the students wrote a 700-word essay on
“Using Aggregates in a Alyssa
Grossen talks with two of the judges in opening rounds. According to competition rules, the model, the abstract, and the presentation must address all the primary design considerations of a city. The Future Cities competition began the year with 30,000 students participating nation wide. Regional competitions were held throughout the United States in January. The Saint Philip Neri team qualified for the finals after winning the Oklahoma Regional. In the 13 years of the competition, Oklahoma had never placed higher than 11th place. Gov. Brad Henry is scheduled to recognize the Saint Philip Neri Future City Team the morning of March 29 in the Blue Room at the state capitol. |
