AIKEN, S.C. - More than 100 kids competed for first place in the Future City Competition.

“It's very exciting, I feel like I'm on top of the world,” said Hanna Harral a team member in the competition from First Baptist Church of Charleston.

Fourteen middle schools from across the area competed for the title in the 2010 South Carolina Future City Competition. It's a hands on, real world learning experience for students, designed to show them how engineers shape the world.

“They have to write a essay, they have to do a city of the future using Sim City software, they have to build a model using recyclable materials and finally give a presentation in front of judges,” said Barbra Smoaks, Manager of Education Outreach at Savannah River Site.

“The whole process of it from writing a essay, writing the presentation, building it was all just wonderful,” said Tanner Rogers student and team member in the competition from First Baptist Church of Charleston.

Judges were looking for the different aspects of designing a city, the model and how creative they were in using all the materials. They were also graded on how each worked as a group to over come any problems.

Team players and competitors know to be successful in this competition it truly takes team work.

“They really have to work together and identify the best person in each role which is real team work, which is what we do in life in any of our positions,” said Smoaks.

"If we didn't have the cooperation it would have never been built. It wouldn't have look this good, we wouldn't even got it in our car," said Rogers.

And then the time came to find out how they placed.

First Baptist Church third place!

“I can't believe I'm standing! Am I standing/” said Rogers

“I had a lot of fun and I think that even if I had not made it, I still would have the same experience I would have had now because I made it this far,” said Harral.