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Philadelphia A DiscoverE Program

Philadelphia Future City Competition Volunteer Information

As we start the planning for the 2021-2022 competition year, it is not clear whether we will be able to have an in-person competition or will need to do it virtually, as we did in 2021. Whether virtual or in-person, we will still need many volunteers for the competition. Activities include working directly (virtually and/or in-person) with the student teams, virtual judging of essays prior to the competition, judging models and presentations, conferencing platform technical support (if virtual), evaluating for special awards, general tasks, and serving on the Steering Committee to help plan the competition.

VOLUNTEER NOW

Mentor: Work with a student team to build their model and prepare for the competition. Teams may be meeting virtually this year so you may be asked to work with a team outside your geographic area. Even if your team is meeting in-person, you could work with them virtually.

City Essay Judge: Evaluate a 1,500-word essay describing each team's city and response to the engineering challenge. The instructions for accessing and judging the essays will be emailed to you. Essays will be available for judging in mid-December and judging will be completed by mid-January. We anticipate 30-35 essays will be submitted; all judges will evaluate all essays, which could take about 20 minutes per essay. Rubrics will be provided. The scores will need to be entered into the new Competition Management System (CMS)

Model/Presentation/Q&A Judge: There will be three deliverables for each team that the judges will need to evaluate.

• The Model Slideshow (a pdf file) will be available shortly after January 10; scores
  due January 19
• A seven-minute Video Presentation will be available shortly after January 10; scores
  due January 19
• Live ten-minute Q&A Session will be the morning of January 22, either in-person or virtually.

We anticipate that each judge will evaluate five to six teams and will need to evaluate all three elements for these teams. Rubrics will be provided for each deliverable. Training before the competition will be provided via Zoom. The scores for all three deliverables will need to be entered into the new Competition Management System (CMS)

Special Awards Evaluator: Select which teams meet the criteria for a Special Award. Evaluators will be able to review team model slideshows and video presentations before the competition (available shortly after January 10) . These will also be available on the day of the competition. Evaluators will need to be available on the morning of January 22 to meet with teams in-person or virtually for Q&A. Scores will be recorded online which can be done using a mobile device while a computer is used for Q&A via Zoom with the students. Training and detailed instructions will be provided.

Competition Support: If you have been a “Competition Support” person in previous years, this is the equivalent role in the virtual world and we still need you. Duties will range from being virtual escorts for teams to taking screen captures and recording videos of the teams. Training will be provided on activities specific to your role as needed..

Zoom Hosts: The competition will be held virtually in a virtual convention center and have about 8 simultaneous Zoom meetings, in the morning, most with many breakout rooms. In the afternoon there will be a webinar that requires several co-hosts to manage the flow of panelists as various teams take and leave the virtual stage. If you are an experienced Zoom host or a tech person who wants to do something audacious, we need you to help us pull this off.