How P.E.I. students see the ideal city of the future

Students on P.E.I. have created models of what their ideal city would look like 100 years in the future and it includes greener transportation and healthy living.

About 175 students in grades 6, 7 and 8 participated a pilot project that brought the U.S.-based Future City competition to Canada for the first time. The only other region in Canada participating is Whitby, Ont.

The theme of the competition was the Power of Public Space. Using 3-D models made from cardboard, clay and plastic, it challenged the students to design innovative, multi-use public spaces that serve a city's diverse population.

Students have been working on the projects since September. Saturday in Charlottetown they faced the judges.

Anna Paquet, a Grade 8 student at Grace Christian School in Charlottetown, was part of the winning team. She said the group really wanted to find new ways to get people moving.

'Parks and public spaces'

"Obesity is a large problem, so that's one thing we wanted to change in our city," she said.

"We focused on holistic wellbeing and we wanted active and engaged citizens so that's what we focused on, and we decided to show the wildlife corridor which has lots of parks and public spaces for everyone to meet."

Ty Arsenault, a Grade 8 student at Amherst Cove Consolidated in Borden-Carleton,spent a lot of time thinking about greener transportation.

"We have tube transportation so instead of cars which pollute the air, you get in a tube and it takes you to wherever you want to go," he said. "And we have fans that take the polluted air out of the air and it cleans it and it sends the fresh air back in just like the water does."

"Engineering is really fun'

Libby Osgood, the event coordinator and engineering professor at UPEI, said they are targeting kids at an age where they're just starting to think of what they want to do.

"What they realize when they do these sorts of design projects is that engineering is really fun," she said. "You add your math and science along with creativity and art and design and end up with this not-scary, really awesome thing that they can actually do."

Eight schools on the Island participated. Osgood hopes it will expand to 20 schools next year.

Paquet's winning team will represent P.E.I. in the finals in Washington, D.C., in February. The trip will be funded by Engineers Canada.

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