Congratulations to the Future Problem Solvers team at Interlake High School! The team (Tejus Agrawal, Joshua Wang, Tanush Yadav and Clarence Zheng) won first place in the Global Issues Problem Solving Team Middle Division at the Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) Conference. Emily Feng, a member of the Interlake team, won the “Best Senior Division Writer” award and placed first in the Scenario Writing team competition. Overall, students from Washington State earned several awards at the June ceremony at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Out of 37 states and 13 countries, students from Washington garnered six first place, four second place and four third place trophies.
FPSPI was created to heighten students’ critical thinking about imminent cultural, community and global problems. The goal is to help students develop skills to solve problems using critical and creative thinking – “Teaching students HOW to think not WHAT to think” according to the FPSPI. Students perform research and engage in topic areas representing themes and concepts related to business and economics, social and political and science and technology.
The international competition requires several qualifying exams and competitions, including a state bowl, to enter. Scenario writers compose descriptive stories centered on future problems; global issue problem solvers (GIPs) take on a 6-step process to flush out challenges, solutions and outcomes related to a certain scenario.
At Interlake High School, Future Problem Solvers is an afterschool club that is open to all students. The club emphasizes a great deal of independent research and meetings focus on group brainstorming and collective sharing of research that is of interest to the students.
