We are please to announce the results of the 2010 Future Problem Solving Qualifying round. The following teams and individuals, along with the Scenario Writing Competition place getters, are invited to the 2010 National Finals which are being held at The University of Melbourne in October.
We are pleased to bring you the results of the 2010 Future Problem Solving Program Australia Scenario Writing competition. Congratulations to all the placegetters in the competition.
Junior Division 1st Place - Xavier Redmond, Artemis and Apollo, St Joseph's College, QLD, Coach: Bronwyn Platz 2nd Place - Sinead MacAuley, Search for Humanity, St Stephen's School-Caramar, WA, Coach; Elizabeth Drieberg 3rd Place - Eleanor Maish, Harlequin Havoc, Ravenswood, NSW, Coach: Sharon Shapiro 4th Place - Hannah Rubenstein, If Only, Reddam House, NSW, Coach: Adriana Sciacca 5th Place - Lindsay Hicks, Problems with Paperbacks, Ravenswood, NSW, Coach: Sharon Shapiro 6th Place - Grace Ernestine, True Love, Lowther Hall, VIC, Coach: Eleni Goulas
Middle Division 1st Place - Charlie Coleman Space Invaders St Joseph's College, QLD, Coach: Bronwyn Platz 2nd Place - Grace Wong Critical Care Ravenswood, NSW Coach: Sharon Shapiro 3rd Place - William Carroll-Shaw The Silent Garden St Peter's College, SA, Coach: Alison-Jane Hayes 4th Place - Ingrid Leighton The Inevitable Ravenswood, NSW, Coach: Sharon Shapiro 5th Place - Isabella Luk, Wild Haileybury College-Newlands, VIC, Coach: Rhonda Pincott 6th Place - Henry Materne-Smith Too Smart for our Own Good? St Peter's College, SA, Coach: Alison-Jane Hayes
Senior Division 1st Place - Thomas Khoo The Spare Sister St Peter's College, SA, Coach: Alison-Jane Hayes 2nd Place - Antony Scholefield The Creeping Jungle St John's Grammar School, SA, Coach: Roslyn Blue 3rd Place - Emmett Ryan Ghost Town St Joseph's College, QLD, Coach: Bronwyn Platz 4th Place - Scott Coyte Rock-a-bye Baby St Peter's College, SA, Coach: Alison-Jane Hayes 5th Place - Yuan Guo Engineering Utopia St Peter's College, SA, Coach: Alison-Jane Hayes 6th Place - Chuong Nguyen Sans Sun St Peter's College, SA, Coach: Alison-Jane Hayes
Getting to the University of Wisconsin in LA Crosse was a 13 hour journey from Brisbane to Los Angeles, five hour flight to Chicago and a one hour flight to LA Crosse.
Recreation involved playing Frisbee, the scavenger hunt through La Crosse, having a paddle boat ride on the Mississippi River and mingling with our lovely friends from Florida.
Excitement as we met with other teams and exchanged information and details. All the colourful flags being paraded out with students from seven different countries.
Entertainment-Saturday night was great seeing all the different acts that were hastily put together. There was a lot of talent in the group of 3,000 people and we kept on seeing the same person playing violin? And the final dance on Saturday night?
Needing fruit and visiting the supermarkets for fresh food which was rather difficult to find.
Learning about the community problem solving projects was interesting- spelling , eating healthy foods, helping abandoned pets and gathering a wider perspective on global issues.
Interesting information: how affected Americans were from the oil spill and their views on politics.
Very weird orange foam cheese triangle hats that some people wore.
Isn't it strange how everyone gets in to the memento exchange - the blow up cows were a bit hit. And it was over too soon.
Nervous wait for the announcements for place getters. We were announced in the top ten finalists and placed 10th in the Global Issues Competitive Booklet Middle Division.
Going home after the closing ceremony- we went to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Alaska. Overall it was an amazing trip well worth the effort. We encourage others to aim to attend in future years.
The E. Paul Torrance Youth Award for Contribution to Future Problem Solving within Australia and the The E. Paul Torrance Coaches' Award
The E. Paul Torrance Youth Award for Contribution to Future Problem Solving within Australia The E. Paul Torrance Youth Award for Contribution to Future Problem Solving within Australia was established by the Future Problem Solving Program in 2005 to recognise the contribution made to the program by senior secondary students in each state or territory.
Nominations are sought each year, and the recipients are invited to receive their awards at the annual National Finals. Students must be in their last three years of secondary schooling, and fulfill a number of criteria, which assess their contribution at state and/or national level to the development and/or administration of Future Problem Solving in Australia.
The E. Paul Torrance Coaches' Award The E. Paul Torrance Coaches' Award was established by the Future Problem Solving Program in 2008 to award special recognition to an Australian coach or coaches who have contributed significantly to the Future Problem Solving Program at school, state and/or national level. Nominations will be sought each year, and the recipient/s will be invited to attend the National Finals to receive their award.
Should you feel any of your students and or colleagues are deserving of this award please complete the nomination forms and forward to the Future Problem Solving Program head office by August 30th 2010.
Community Problem Solving is a program where individuals or teams address issues in their communities using the six-step process. Rather than being given a future scene to address, CmPS students identify an area of concern. CmPSers then devise an underlying problem, solutions and a plan of action. The students then implement their plan, bringing about real change in the area of concern.
At the 2010 International Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin there was a huge number of CmPS projects. In fact, there are so many projects at the Internationals that they are divided into categories for evaluation. The CmPS fair covered a whole gymnasium with projects including creating an art gallery in a rural community, promoting healthy sleep habits for teenagers, helping children with the transition into foster care, autism awareness, educating young people about financial responsibility and developing garden programs in schools.
The process of evaluation is similar to that in Australia. After qualifying, CmPSers submit a preliminary report. The interviews take place onsite, though the internationals are a little longer than our finals.
The Australian CmPS program has grown considerably in recent years and Australian CmPS teams have achieved great success at the international level. For example, in 2010 both Australian senior CmPS teams placed first in their categories.
This year 9 junior teams, 16 middle teams and 4 senior teams are registered in Community Problem Solving. I would encourage everyone who can to come along to the CmPS fair at the Australian Nationals in Melbourne to see a showcase of some of our best CmPS projects- and perhaps you'll spot a future international champion.
FPSP International Conference 2010: La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA
As mentioned in the article in the FPSP Internation Conference 2010 article, 2010 proved to be one of the most successful years of Australian participation in the International Conference (Finals) to date. Not only did students from all participating schools feature in some event up on the main stage during the major ceremonies, but the camaraderie shown by the teams and their accompanying teachers was one of the best in recent years.
Nearly all the students had attended homestay with US families prior to the Finals, and as one of the Australian coaches who travelled to the USA mentioned to me just recently, it was that experience that was almost the highlight of the trip, and, in some ways, the one that will last the longest. Confirmation of this view could be seen regularly throughout the Finals, as our teams sought out the company of their new US friends, and vice versa.
From the perspective of the Australian Program, the results of the Finals indicated that the direction of our own FPS Program continues to be on the right track. As the table of results indicates, nearly every student who attended the Finals had major success, and it was particularly pleasing that our students achieved across the range of all the competitions, rather than being just focused on one or two areas. The success of our Community problem Solving teams, which included two champion placings in different project areas was particularly impressive, and showed the progress that Australian teams have made in this area of FPS ove recent years.
The International Finals is also the time for the Governing Council of FPSP International to meet. Composed of the affiliate directors of the various FPS affiliates, this is the ‘parliament' of FPS, the place where all major decisions are taken. This year was also my first Governing Council as a member of the Board of Trustees, following in the steps of my predecessors, Suzanne Strangward and Valerie Volk. This occasion was all the more memorable because one of our mentored regions, Malaysia, was voted in as a full affiliate of FPSPI as from January 2011. It is the culmination of many years of work for Lalitha Nair of The Skills Mill in Kuala Lumpur, and one that I know brought her much satisfaction.
Australian Finals 2010
Issuing of Invitations
Coaches are reminded that emails inviting students to attend the Finals in Melbourne will be sent on at the beginning of the week of Monday August 30th. All coaches are asked to check their emails daily for the September period as supplementary invitations may be issued depending on the rate of acceptances with the initial round of invitations.
Important Announcement regarding Global Issues Problem Solving (GIPS)Competition
For the history of the FPS Program, the GIPS (booklet) teams have been given their own room to complete the booklet, both domestically and internationally. However, as this year's IC attendees experienced, it has been increasingly difficult to find enough rooms for all teams, whether in the US or Australia. This is due to the increased costs of hiring rooms, even at a subsidised rate, or the sheer lack of rooms as universities conduct more summer schools. In Australia, there are very few schools with enough individual rooms to accommodate all of our teams.
Consequently, this year we will be introducing the system that was introduced at IC this year and has been used by major large affiliates in the USA for many years, including Texas, which always has major success at IC. All GIPS teams will be at tables in the same hall, with division on a different location, where possible. The tables will be separated enough to allow teams members to walk around their own table without disturbing others. As the IC showed, noise is not an issue; the teams start taking to each other, but there is no need to be loud so no interference takes place. As a monitor in one hall at IC, I observed that, by the end of the booklet, the teams were talking at normal volume, but all were focused on their own booklet and were not taking any notice of other teams! The system will also simplify the administration of the competition greatly and improve the consistency of conditions experienced by each team in all divisions.
2010 proved to be one of the most successful years of Australian participation in the International Conference (Finals) to date. Not only did students from all participating schools feature in some event up on the main stage during the major ceremonies, but the camaraderie shown by the teams and their accompanying teachers was one of the best in recent years.
Competition
Division
Placegetters
Global Issues Problem Solving
Junior
Indooroopilly SS, Qld, 9th Place
Middle
AB Paterson College, Qld, 10th Place
Alternate: Junior
Rachel Hudson-Jones, Westbourne Grammar School, Vic, 1st Place
James O'Sullivan, St Joseph's College, Qld, 3rd Place
Adult
Roslyn Blue, SA, 1st Place
Nicky Desoe, Qld, 2nd Place
Community Problem Solving
Junior
Sci/Tech
Sowing Seeds, St Stephen's School, WA, 2nd Place
I.C.U.C, Beaconhills College, Vic, 3rd Place
Middle
Social/Political
The Leadbeater's Possum: helping a small friend in need, Beaconhills College, Vic, 2nd Place
Senior
Continuing MATES, St Joeph's College, Qld, 1st Place
Education S.A.F.E., The Illawarra Grammer School, NSW, 1st Place
Presentation of Action Plan
Junior
Frosty Flies Westbourne Gammar School, Vic, 2nd
Solar Solvers, the Musical St Joseph's College, Qld, 3rd
After more than twenty years of involvement as school coach, evaluator and administrator in Future Problem Solving, Jan Hales has tendered her resignation from the Executive of Future Problem Solving Program Australia. This is the next stage of her transition out of professional life as she, in her words, feels "that it is time to smell a few roses and get out and about!" Jan is on long service leave prior to retiring from her school position, and will be vacating her roles as FPS NSW State Convenor and Scenario Writing Co-ordinator over the next two to three months.
