The New Lebanon Jr. High School team took first place overall in the Capital District Future City Competition held at Proctor’s in Schenectady on January 9. This is the second year in a row that the New Lebanon team has won the competition.
The team of nine junior high school students scored higher than 19 other teams. They worked for months to develop their city of the future “Marhielo,” under the direction of master teacher Mary-Beth Liles. They will go on to represent the region in the national competition in Washington D.C., February 13 – 17.
This year’s theme was “Waste Not, Want Not.” Students were asked to design a waste management system for residential use by looking at issues such as collection, separation, processing, recycling, health and safety, energy-efficiency, environmental impact, and cost. They designed the virtual city using SimCity software, constructed a scale model of their city out of recycled materials, wrote a 1,500 word city description, and gave a short presentation to a panel of STEM professionals
“The Future Cities program is STEM education at its best. I am really proud of our team in that they are becoming globally responsible citizens as they research and learn about ways to make the Earth sustainable. They have worked hard for this honor and our whole school is extremely proud of them.”
In addition to winning $1,500 as the first place winner, the team received $600 for the title of “Best Computer Design City,” “Best Essay,” “Best Model Design,” “Most Innovative Moving Part,” “Excellence in the Design of a City,” and “Most Innovative Design of a ‘4 R’ System.” The money will be used to help offset costs for the national competition.
The New Lebanon team consists of: Larry Fletcher, Aloka Gale, Edward Hunt-ercolani, Zoe Hannah, Austin Prior, Jaden Tompkins, Lydia Loverin, Daniel Truax and Carlton Truax.