Farnsworth Middle School wins ‘Future City’ contest

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Farnsworth Middle School of the Guilderland Central School District won first place over the weekend in the Upstate New York regional Future City Competition in Albany. The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) competition asked teams of students to answer the question of what future cities might look like if today’s cities were to adapt to climate change and install mitigation strategies to combat it.

For the 2022-23 program, 150 middle schoolers from 10 local schools competed in the regional finals. By placing first, Farnsworth Middle School has earned a paid trip to the national Future City Competition Finals in Washington, D.C., February 18-22. This is Upstate New York’s 22nd competition.

Farnsworth’s team, City Converters, created the futuristic city of “Pine Peaks.” The students were evaluated on the development of a game plan, an essay describing their city, a 3D model, a formal presentation given to a panel of engineering judges, and answers to a live question-and-answer session with those judges.

The City Converters team was supervised by teachers Rebecca Been and Kelly Werner. Engineering mentors for the team were Jennifer Smith from Plug Power and Steven Wood from the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Other winners included:

• Second place
  • Broadalbin-Perth Junior/Senior High School
• Third place
  • Coxsackie-Athens Middle School
• Fourth place
• Fifth place