News
Draper students design future 'golden' city
County Legislature to recognize
Draper team on Feb. 14
Feb. 3, 2012
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| (Front row, left to right) Antonio Spadaro, Zachary Hess, Bruce Phillips, Angelo Santabarbara (Back row, left to right) Mr. Garing, Mr. Hunt, David Ten Eyck, Guy Garmer, Jason Gage, Billy Scarff, Nolan Carroll. Additional Future City members include Scott Konrad and Ed Medick. |
A team of Draper Middle School students recently designed a new city that uses thermal energy from its community solar collector to heat entire neighborhoods.
They entered their 3-D model of “Goldenville” into the 11th Annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition, held at Hudson Valley Community College on Jan. 14.
Built upon its gold wealth and efficient use of solar and geothermal energy, Goldenville, Alaska, grew into a successful, thriving city by the year 2200. Students created underground shopping and business areas to take advantage of the constant temperature to reduce heating costs in winter and cooling costs in summer. Following the Gold Rush, Goldenville’s prosperity continued as a result of advanced technologies in renewable energy and genetically engineered crops.
"This real-world project enhances students' academic knowledge and helps them develop critical skills, such as teamwork, problem-solving, creative thinking, and communication," said Academic Administrator for Science and Technology and Future City Faculty Advisor, Gerald Garing.
Work began in September to complete the various phases of the contest leading up to January’s competition.
A special thanks to all of the parents for their assistance this year, and the following:
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Draper's engineer mentor, Mr. Hunt, from Creighton-Manning Engineering
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Art Teacher Michael York
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Art Teacher Steve Blais
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Technology Teacher Mark Lajeunesse
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Technology Teacher John Winters
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Engineer and Schenectady County Legislator, Angelo Santabarbara, for his active support and participation in classrooms and activities in local schools.
Santabarbara will be presenting a resolution at the Feb. 14 County Legislature meeting to recognize the Draper team.
