Frelinghuysen Students Win Statewide Engineering Competition

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Four eighth graders from Frelinghuysen Middle School in Morristown are heading to D.C. to compete in the national Future City Competition after bringing home the gold for the state of New Jersey on Jan. 18.

The team — made up of students Elise, Elizabeth, Mary, and Michelle— won the statewide competition with their project titled "Tourmalia," which considers what steps would need to be taken in the event that an oil tank explosion in the Straits of Malacca rendered the area partly uninhabitable.

According to a press release from the school, the students created a multi-step plan to design an environmentally-friendly water filtration system that would restore the water supply and return livable conditions to the fictional city of Tourmalia.

The Frelinghuysen team beat out 27 other schools from across the state in this year's competition, the theme of which is "Clean Water: Tap into Tomorrow." All competing teams were required to prepare a virtual city design via SimCity, a 1,500-word essay, a 3-D model built from cecycled materials, a project plan and a 7-minute presentation skit.

The challenged they faced? "Choose a threat to your city’s water supply and design a resilient system to maintain a reliable supply of clean drinking water."

The release stated the team presented a "Seven Step -Ation Plan" for clean water: accumulation, desalination, coagulation, evaporation, filtration, examination, and circulation.

In short, the team designed a sand barrier and living buildings to filter water as well as alternative sources of power to integrate into the city.

The students will take their project to Washington, D.C., to compete in the nationwide finals on Feb. 18.

Three of the four students have also applied to the Morristown High School STEM Academy. The academy is a selective program that offers specialized instruciton in STEM subjects.