Solving Problems Of The Future

By Laurie Borst

The 24th Annual Future Problem Solving of Connecticut conference was held at UConn in Storrs March 30 and 31. Four Newtown Middle School students participated in the program.

Future Problem Solving Program of Connecticut, Inc (FPSPofCT) is a program designed to help students learn how to think, not what to think, according to its website, fpspofct.org.

Each year, FPSP selects a problem facing society and students use the program’s six-step problem solving process to analyze the potential situation, determine the challenges, describe the underlying problem, outline solutions, evaluate solutions, and detail their best solution.

The competition is broken into three divisions based on age: junior division (grades 4–6), middle division (grades 7–9) and senior division (grades 10–12). The students’ work is evaluated by a panel of judges to determine who is the best group of Future Problem Solvers.

The four NMS students, from Patrice Gans’ seventh grade GATES class. were Jessica Lajoie, Caitlyn Dowling, Maddy McDermott, and Olivia Koziol. It was the first time the girls participated in the competition.

To prepare, and determine which students were interested in the program, the class did practice packets. Practice packets are the problems presented in past competitions. The two topics the students practiced were Cultural Prejudice and Protecting National Treasures.

“I didn’t enjoy doing the practice packet,” said Olivia, “but the competition turned out to be a lot of fun.”

At this year’s competition, the Future Problem under consideration was Caring for Our Elders. The following scenario was described: a young girl in Tokyo visits her grandmother in the hospital. But, the grandmother is in isolation for her illness and the young girl could not go in.

The competition topic was given out ahead of time. The GATES students learned through Internet research that isolation is a form of elder abuse. The teams of competitors were not allowed to use notes during the event. They had to learn about the concept and commit the information to memory.

Then, through brainstorming and teamwork, they needed to list 16 possible events or challenges associated with the problem, and suggest solutions. The teams select one challenge to present along with their best solution.

The NMS team proposed therapists be trained to go in and work with patients, but wearing protective clothing.

“This event is an overnight trip. The first day, the students had two hours to work through a packet about the problem and devise an action plan,” Jessica explained. “The second day, the teams had four hours to write a skit that presents their action plan in four minutes.”

The work on the packet and the skit are graded separately.

Thirty-five teams participated including Zippy teams, which are combinations of students from different schools that do not have enough students for a team of their own.

“We were up against kids with more experience,” said Jessica of the experience. “We would all do it again.”

“It was challenging,” offered Caitlyn, “but very exciting.”

Winning teams go on to Colorado for the national level of competition.

For more information, visit the national organization’s website at www.fpsp.org or the local Connecticut affiliate’s website at www.fpspofct.org.