Future City Junior - Team Center

Program Overview

Future City Junior - North Texas

The North Texas Region offers a Junior program for 4-5th graders.
This program is an introduction to the full (6-8th grade) Future City Competition effort.

The Junior Competition deliverables include:
- Research essay
- Physical model
- Presentation (non-formal)

Specifically, for the Junior Competition:
- The Project Plan, City-Team Presentation, and Q&A deliverables are NOT included in the Junior program.
- The Essay is shortened such that it need not include a detailed description of the city and the maximum word count is 1000.
- There will be no formal oral City Presentation. However, the student team-members will have the opportunity to talk to judges, who are engineering professionals, during the model judging for a short Q&A.
- The Model is simplified to focus primarily on demonstrating the annual theme, and to cost no more than $50.

Please note: this program is only available in North Texas and a few other FC regions at this time.

Download the Junior Competition Guide for additional information

Enrollment

Schools and youth organizations with 4th-5th grade students may register by 31 October by completing the middle school National Future City Competition online enrollment form.

Registration fee is $25 per school or organization.

Key Links

Resources

Schedule

Program and Rules

List of Organizations

Day-of Info

This component will describe the team’s solution to the annual challenge. Students write a 1,000-word essay that introduces their city and provides a solution to this year’s challenge

Part 1:

Research Essay

Part 2:

Physical Model

Students build a physical scale model of a section of their city using recycled materials. This is the opportunity for the team to realize their vision of the city and see their ideas for the future come to life.

2025-2026 Future City North Texas Requirement :

In acknowledgement of our region hosting World Cup Soccer games in 2026, models must include a stadium.
A 10 point deduction will be applied for any model without a stadium.

Resources

Letter for teachers to print and send to parents of student competitors explaining the FC Junior program and timeline (Oct-2024).

General Resources

Download the General Research Resource Document

Annual Challenge Resources & Rubrics

Download 2025-2026 Farm to Table Resource Document

Junior Competition Expense Form

Download Junior Competition Expense Form
Note: The junior competition limit is $50 not $100.

Past Essays

• Past Junior Best Essays 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024

Past Model Resources

• Pictures of past junior models

• Model video demonstrations were required during our two years of COVID virtual competitions: 2021 and 2022. These videos can provide an illustration of the best models and the teams' design concepts.

  • 2021 Model Videos:

    • Video 1

    • Video 2

    • Video 3

  • 2022 Model Videos

    • Video 1

    • Video 2

    • Video 3

National Program Handbook

The Future City Competition program handbook (download from Educator Dashboard) has been written for the middle-school program and is a valuable guide for the teaching/leading the project. The Junior program has been simplified somewhat from the complete middle-school program described in the handbook.

Specifically, for the Junior Competition:

• The Project Plan, City-Team Presentation, and Q&A deliverables are NOT included in the Junior program.

• The Essay is shortened such that it need not include a detailed description of the city and the maximum word count is 1000.

• There will be no formal oral City Presentation. However, the student team-members will have the opportunity to talk to the judges. See Model Judging information below.

• The Model, likewise, is simplified to focus primarily on demonstrating the annual theme, and to cost no more than $50

Keeping these changes in mind, the handbook information on Team-building, Engineering Design Process, Project Planning, and City Planning may be useful as background.

Judging

• The essay and model will be judged by multiple judges (technical professionals) and the scores for each averaged then added together to come up with a composite/total score for each team.

• The essay will be judged during December-January.

• Model judging will take place on-site at the NTX Regional Competition in Fort Worth, Texas.

Awards Ceremony and Announcement of Winners

• The results of the NTX Future City Junior Competition will be announced during the online Awards Ceremony

• Scores for individual teams and deliverables will be available for educators following the announcements.

  Prizes:

  • Future City Competition Junior will provide prizes for:

    • Best Essay

    • Best Model

    • Best Overall Junior Team

  • Sponsors will also give out Special Awards recognizing accomplishments in various categories, such as: Green City, Energy Efficiency, etc.

Other Rules

• Participants will comply with the basic rules of the Future City Competition program as laid out in the handbook and as modified in the soon-to-be-published Junior rules and rubrics.

• Deadlines will not be extended. Teams making submittals after the deadlines will receive penalty points.

• Any conflicts will be resolved locally. There is no appeal.

• The judges' decisions are final.

• Prizes are not transferable or exchangeable.

2025-2026 Schedule

Friday, October 31, 2025: Registration

Friday, December 6, 2025: Essay due

• Submit in electronic format - .doc

• Upload files through the NTX Junior CMS

• Files received by deadline will avoid late penalties.
  Late submissions are allowed - see below for dates and penalties.

Friday, December 19, 2025 : Last date for Essay files.
Files received by this date will have points deducted.

Wednesday, January 14, 2026 : Last Day to Modify Teams

Saturday, January 24, 2026: Competition Day

Competition location Tarrant County College-Trinity River Campus West

• Team Check-in

  • Bring Model with ID tag

  • Bring completed, signed Expense Form

  • Bring signed Media Waiver Form (optional)

Schools and Organizations

2025-2026 Registered Organization (To be updated after November 1, 2025)

2024-2025 Registered Organizations

• Armstrong Elementary, Sachse

• Barton Creek Elementary, Austin

• Childrens Xplanet, Katy

• J Delaney Elementary, Kennedale

• Donald Elementary, LISD STEM

• Dyer Elementary, Krum

• IW Evans Intermediate, Bonham

• Founders Classical Acad, Schertz

• RF Patterson Elementary, Arlington

• Roberta Tipps Elementary, Mansfield

• EA Young Academy, Roanoke