Post by adefonzo on May 22, 2009 7:20:27 GMT -5
An article in the APP about our fantastic Future Problem Solvers team. More comments to follow...
www.app.com/article/20090521/COMMUNITY01/905210374/1285/LOCAL09/Problem-solving+team+takes+on+the+world
FREEHOLD — A successful Australian company partners with the New Zimbabwean government, flush with World Bank cash, to create cheaper versions of its popular Human Computer device. Middle and lower-class citizens can now purchase the products, and manufacturing and services throughout southern Africa are booming. Then the problems start.
It turns out New Zimbabwe has been cutting corners, manufacturing in unsanitary environments, watering down chemicals and using inferior parts. Reports of mental illness linked to the New Zimbabwe products are now emerging.
And the Australian company — whose own products have not been blamed for mental illness — has been forced into bankruptcy as it contends with a spate of lawsuits and a drastic decline in sales.
So, what's the solution? How can the flow of harmful products be stopped, without damaging New Zimbabwe's fledgling economy in the process?
A team of Freehold fifth-graders have an answer.
Six students from Park Avenue Elementary and the Freehold Learning Center successfully studied this hypothetical question at the Future Problem Solving of New Jersey's recent state bowl, paving the way for a chance to test their problem-solving mettle against students from around the world.
Their winning solution? Let the African Health Foundation develop a health manual on the devices, as well as a demonstration on their effects and how to prevent further harm, according to team coach Suzanne Peltzman.
That solution helped the Freehold team place second in their division at the March competition, beating out five other New Jersey teams.
"It (the state victory) made us feel really proud," said team member Hannah Grisinger, 11. "We were screaming so loud, we're not sure who won first place." (The winner was Community Middle School from the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District.)
Freehold's win earned the team a place at the Future Problem Solving Program International Conference, to be held from May 27 to 31 at Michigan State University in Lansing. Their expected topic will be how to prepare and respond to pandemics, an especially appropriate question right now.
"Just making it to the state bowl is a big accomplishment," said Peltzman, a fifth-grade teacher at Park Avenue Elementary.
Peltzman has been coaching Freehold's current Future Problem Solving Team since October, helping them devise solutions to potential scenarios such as the New Zimbabwe issue.
The Future Problem Solving program is a nonprofit educational corporation that coordinates creative problem-solving activities for students from kindergarten up through high school. The group was founded in 1974 to stimulate childrens' critical and creative-thinking skills, and to encourage them to create a vision for the future, according to the organization's New Jersey program.
In competition, students are given a specific scenario. They must then employ a six-step model to solve the problem outlined. Those steps include identifying challenges related to the scenario, selecting an underlying problem, devising solutions to the problem, generating and selecting criteria to evaluate those ideas and evaluating the ideas to determine the best solution.
The final step is to develop an action plan, which teams present at competitions.
"At the beginning, it was really confusing. It's a whole new way of writing and thinking," Grisinger said.
Working as a team has also proved a challenge, one the students said they have overcome.
"I think that we've been able to train together . . . and cope with each other's personalities," said Kayla Ciok, 11.
"I think they (the students) did learn to overcome the obstacle of everybody wanting to be the boss," agreed Peltzman.
Instead, the team works together, pooling their individual strengths to win.
Everyone has a role on the team, no matter where their talents lie, Peltzman said.
"This program encompasses the whole child," she said.
www.app.com/article/20090521/COMMUNITY01/905210374/1285/LOCAL09/Problem-solving+team+takes+on+the+world
FREEHOLD — A successful Australian company partners with the New Zimbabwean government, flush with World Bank cash, to create cheaper versions of its popular Human Computer device. Middle and lower-class citizens can now purchase the products, and manufacturing and services throughout southern Africa are booming. Then the problems start.
It turns out New Zimbabwe has been cutting corners, manufacturing in unsanitary environments, watering down chemicals and using inferior parts. Reports of mental illness linked to the New Zimbabwe products are now emerging.
And the Australian company — whose own products have not been blamed for mental illness — has been forced into bankruptcy as it contends with a spate of lawsuits and a drastic decline in sales.
So, what's the solution? How can the flow of harmful products be stopped, without damaging New Zimbabwe's fledgling economy in the process?
A team of Freehold fifth-graders have an answer.
Six students from Park Avenue Elementary and the Freehold Learning Center successfully studied this hypothetical question at the Future Problem Solving of New Jersey's recent state bowl, paving the way for a chance to test their problem-solving mettle against students from around the world.
Their winning solution? Let the African Health Foundation develop a health manual on the devices, as well as a demonstration on their effects and how to prevent further harm, according to team coach Suzanne Peltzman.
That solution helped the Freehold team place second in their division at the March competition, beating out five other New Jersey teams.
"It (the state victory) made us feel really proud," said team member Hannah Grisinger, 11. "We were screaming so loud, we're not sure who won first place." (The winner was Community Middle School from the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District.)
Freehold's win earned the team a place at the Future Problem Solving Program International Conference, to be held from May 27 to 31 at Michigan State University in Lansing. Their expected topic will be how to prepare and respond to pandemics, an especially appropriate question right now.
"Just making it to the state bowl is a big accomplishment," said Peltzman, a fifth-grade teacher at Park Avenue Elementary.
Peltzman has been coaching Freehold's current Future Problem Solving Team since October, helping them devise solutions to potential scenarios such as the New Zimbabwe issue.
The Future Problem Solving program is a nonprofit educational corporation that coordinates creative problem-solving activities for students from kindergarten up through high school. The group was founded in 1974 to stimulate childrens' critical and creative-thinking skills, and to encourage them to create a vision for the future, according to the organization's New Jersey program.
In competition, students are given a specific scenario. They must then employ a six-step model to solve the problem outlined. Those steps include identifying challenges related to the scenario, selecting an underlying problem, devising solutions to the problem, generating and selecting criteria to evaluate those ideas and evaluating the ideas to determine the best solution.
The final step is to develop an action plan, which teams present at competitions.
"At the beginning, it was really confusing. It's a whole new way of writing and thinking," Grisinger said.
Working as a team has also proved a challenge, one the students said they have overcome.
"I think that we've been able to train together . . . and cope with each other's personalities," said Kayla Ciok, 11.
"I think they (the students) did learn to overcome the obstacle of everybody wanting to be the boss," agreed Peltzman.
Instead, the team works together, pooling their individual strengths to win.
Everyone has a role on the team, no matter where their talents lie, Peltzman said.
"This program encompasses the whole child," she said.