Team Earns Additional Awards for “Best Model Design” and “Most Sustainable Building”
The Broadalbin-Perth Future City Team recently competed virtually against 16 other Capital Region schools at this year’s Future City competition, finishing third in the region and taking home awards for “Most Sustainable Building” and “Best Model Design.” B-P’s Future City team includes students in grades 6-8 and is coached by Michael Nacheman (sixth grade science teacher) and Nichole Sullivan (junior high math teacher).
Future City competitions require students to engineer a fictitious city and use STEAM-related skills (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) to imagine, research, design and build a model that provides a solution to a citywide sustainability issue. The 2020-21 competition theme was “Living on the Moon.” Teams were tasked with designing a futuristic lunar city and providing examples of how the city uses two moon resources to keep its residents safe and healthy.
B-P students started preparing for the competition in summer 2020 by reading Andy Weir’s “The Martian.” Formal group meetings began in September, with face-to-face meetings and virtual Google Meet planning sessions taking place throughout the fall and winter.
“We are very proud of the hard work that our students put into this year’s project and excited that those efforts were rewarded with a third-place finish and two other team awards,” Nacheman said. “This school year has been trying for many reasons, but our team overcame every obstacle that they faced.”
“This year, our students faced a lot of unique challenges, including a building reconfiguration at B-P and a global pandemic that has caused numerous disruptions to learning,” Sullivan said. “Our students have shown us that anything is possible, including living on the moon. Mr. Nacheman and I are proud of our students for their commitment, resiliency, and teamwork.”
