There are now two ICE CityZen competitions featuring our unique skills-building computer games.
They take place yearly starting in autumn and finalising in the spring term.
They're both great for developing your students skills and confidence and are free to enter - with great prizes to boot!
Find out about our competitions and past winners
The competition is in two parts:
- A digital game played over 4-6 one-hour sessions
- A creative video project for students to pitch their idea of how civil engineering could be used to improve their local environment.
The digital CityZen game is a multi-award winning activity, having won the Gold Award for Best Learning Game at the 2023 Learning Technologies Awards and the Secondary Free Digital Content App or Open Educational Resource category in the 2024 Bett Awards!
The ICE CityZen experience gives students:
- Skills for success, such as teamwork, critical thinking, communication and problem-solving.
- Insight into a respected, exciting and globally vital career option.
- More insight into STEM topics, including content relevant to the national curriculums for geography, and design technology.
- A certificate of participation, plus great prizes.
CityZen need-to-know information
- It’s for students aged 16-18 years old.
- Attending full-time education in a UK school or college.
- Teams must be registered by a teacher or school representative.
- Terms and conditions of entry.
Register your interest for the 2024/25 award
2024-25 Award information packs
Award Resources
For students aged 14-16, the ICE’s new competition, the ICE CityZen Pollution Control Challenge, offers the chance to discover what it’s like to be a civil engineer in a short and engaging online activity.
It’s a 1- to 2-hour activity which can fit easily into class or extra-curricular time featuring a unique civil engineering game based on the ICE’s double award-winning* CityZen game.
It’s free to enter and all students who participate receive certificates. Winning teams are chosen from the top scorers and win £50 vouchers and an invitation to a VIP civil engineering visit or tour in their area**.
Register to take part in the 2024-25 competition before 20 December 2024. The game (a single session) can be completed anytime between the start of the autumn term and the closing date 21 March 2025.
Top reasons to take part:
- Develop your students’ critical thinking, team-working and problem-solving skills.
- Introduce your students to a broad career that has a big impact on the world.
- Improve your students’ understanding of complex environmental concerns.
- Boost your student’s ’confidence and achievement records.
- The chance to win a money-can’t-buy prize.
Pollution Control, climate concerns and the curriculum
The CityZen Pollution Control game has been designed to improve understanding of environmental issues.
Students are faced with a difficult-to-solve environmental issue with many possible solutions. The 3D game map contains evidence-rich clues which students can use to solve the problem scientifically.
CityZen’s unique gameplay also includes a range of wildcard characters whose requests may complicate matters but prove that civil engineering is just as much about people as it is about infrastructure!
Content in the game supports learning in curriculums for geography, humanities, sciences, citizenship, geology and engineering.
Students who’ve tackled the challenges in the ICE CityZen Pollution Control game told us:
“I enjoyed keeping promises to people, thinking about trying to help people, not just the river.”
“I liked the fact that we had to find things out.”
“It gave me a good idea of what civil engineering could be like.”
ICE CityZen Pollution Control resources
- Teacher Guide
- Student Sign-up Poster
- Class Presentation
- Student worksheet
- Competition terms and conditions
*2023 Gold for ‘Best Learning Game’ at the Learning Technologies Awards and 2024 Bett Award winner ‘Best free secondary resource or app’.
**VIP trip/tour will be bespoke and dependent on where winners are located, so is also subject to availability. The ICE reserves the right to substitute an alternative prize if necessary.
Got a question about the award?
Contact the ICE careers team if you have a question about the competition and we’ll be happy to help: