A group of College View Middle School students are competing in a virtual Future Problem Solving State Qualifier on Friday.
Traditionally, these students would have competed at a state competition in Louisville in a face-to-face format to solve futuristic problems such as the spread of infectious diseases, cashless societies and poverty.
Future Problem Solving is an international program involving thousands of students annually from around the world. FPS teaches critical and creative thinking, problem solving, and decision making.
“It is interesting that some of the suggestions for tracking problem solving throughout this pandemic were actually ideas students came up with in this topic several years ago at an FPS competition,” coach Jacob Bryant said. “If the team places they will move on to an international competition which brings together 2,500 students from around the world to compete in this type of event.”
While the pandemic mitigated their ability to compete in person at the state level, the students developed the idea to have virtual competition where they would participate on a collaborative Google Meet and Google Document.
Bryant said in this competition, the team hopes to have the best proposal to solve the state qualifying topic of poverty.
If they finish among the top four teams, they will advance to a virtual international competition with teams across the U.S., China, Australia and New Zealand. Traditionally, this competition would have been held at the University of Massachusetts — but the pandemic has moved it to a virtual competition, too.
Bryant said as the coach, he is proud of the work this team has done to think outside of tradition and come up with ways to solve future global problems like we are in right now.
“I have no doubt the individuals competing will be the future leaders of our state and countryn and this program has developed the skills they will need to effectively solve international crises,” he said. “Moreover, amidst the pandemic which has canceled many extracurricular activities, it is great to see this can still move forward and have a positive impact.”
Team members are:
Xander Berry
Brody Hammons
David Waltrip
Braxton Hall
Individual FPS competitors:
Kaden Blankenship
Grant Broughton
Zach Hedges
Caden Coleman
