Capital District Region Middle Schoolers Compete in Future City Regional Finals Saturday, January 13

Capital District Region Middle Schoolers Compete in Future City Regional Finals Saturday, January 13, for a Chance to Win a Grand Prize in Washington, D.C.

This Year’s Theme is:
The Age Friendly City

Albany, New York– Long-held assumptions about aging are being radically redefined. Older adults are living longer, staying in the workplace longer, and living independently for longer than ever. The population is also growing and altering society’s overall demographics. By 2050, older adults will outnumber children under the age of 14.

The award-winning Future City® Competition, now in its 26th year, is asking middle school students to respond to the issue of The Age-Friendly City by designing innovative solutions that can serve an urban area’s older population. Students are tasked with identifying age-related issues in their city and to engineer a framework that enables seniors to remain active, independent, and engaged.

The Capital District competition will be held on Saturday, January 13th at The Armory at Sage College in Albany. In the Capital District region, there are 28 schools and organizations with a total of 30 teams competing in the Future City Regional Finals. There are approximately 400 local students participating in the competition this year. Our regional students join more than 40,000 middle school students from 1,350 schools in 40 regions around the country, all of whom are engaged in similar competitions.

First place winners from each qualifying regional competition receive a trip to the Future City Competition Finals in Washington, D.C., February 17-21, 2018, during Engineers Week.

Teams/schools competing in this year’s competition include:

Name of School	School District	County
Acadia Middle School	Shenendehowa Central School District	Saratoga
Ballston Spa Middle School	Ballston Spa Central School District	Saratoga
Blessed Sacrament School	Blessed Sacrament School	Albany
Broadalbin-Perth Middle School	Broadalbin-Perth Central School District	Fulton
Coxsackie-Athens Middle School	Coxsackie-Athens Central School District	Greene
Farnsworth Middle School	Guilderland Central School District	Albany
Flood Brook School	Flood Brook Union School	Southern Vermont
Gowana Middle School	Shenendehowa Central School District	Saratoga
Hackett Middle School	Albany Public Schools	Albany
Koda Middle School	Shenendehowa Central School District	Saratoga
La Salle School	La Salle School	Albany
Maple Avenue Middle School	Saratoga Springs City School District	Saratoga
Mater Christi School	Mater Christi School	Albany
New Lebanon Jr/Sr High School	New Lebanon Central School District	Columbia
North Colonie Central School District Learning Enrichment Program	North Colonie Central School District	Albany
Richard H. O’Rourke Middle School	Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District	Saratoga
RPI STEP	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – Pre-College Program	Rensselaer
Schoharie Mohawk Initiative for Science	Schoharie Mohawk Initiative for Science	Schoharie
Schalmont Middle School	Schalmont Central School District	Schenectady
St. Thomas the Apostle School	St. Thomas the Apostle School	Albany
Susan Odell Taylor School	Susan Odell Taylor School	Troy
Syracuse City Schools NSBE Jr. Chapter	Syracuse City School District	Onondaga
Voorheeseville Public Library	Voorheeseville Public Library	Albany

There were a total of 20 schools and 27 teams, with a total of 375 local students, competing in the regional finals at Proctors Theater in Schenectady this past January. The New Lebanon Jr/Sr High School won the 2016-17 Regional Capital District Future City Competition and represented our area at the national competition in Washington D.C. Other local finalists were: Richard H. O’Rourke Middle School (2nd place); Flood Brook School (3rd place); Broadalbin-Perth Middle School (4th place); and Academy of the Holy Names (5th place).

About DiscoverE

DiscoverE is leading a growing volunteer movement that inspires and informs present and future generations to discover engineering. Our network of volunteers in the US and abroad is drawn from the DiscoverE coalition of more than 100 professional societies, major corporations and government agencies. Together we meet a vital need: introducing students, parents, and educators to engineering, engaging them in hands-on engineering experiences and making science and math relevant. For more information, visit www.discovere.org.

About Future City® Competition

DiscoverE’s annual Future City® Competition, for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students, is held from September 2017 through February 2018. Major funding for the Finals comes from Bechtel Corporation, Bentley Systems, Shell Oil Company, and DiscoverE. AARP is sponsoring Future City this year, in recognition of the age-friendly challenge, and has been involved in regions across the country. This year Capital District Region celebrates participating in the program for 17 years! Visit the Capital District Future City website at: http://futurecity.org/new-york-albany.

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