THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 2, 1994 TAG: 9406020489
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICK K. LACKEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940602 LENGTH: NORFOLK
What to do?
{REST} That was the question facing students from 20 Virginia school districts in the 1993-94 Future Problem Solving Program State Bowl.
And for the first time in the 10 years that Virginia has participated in the international program, all three individual state champs hailed from the same city: Norfolk.
Judges ruled that the best solutions came from Rachel Seltman, a Larchmont Elementary School fifth-grader; Katie Connors, a Blair Middle School eighth-grader; and Holly Higgins, a Granby High School junior.
All three were coached at the Stuart Gifted Center in Norfolk.
For two tense, silent hours on June 9, the trio will compete at the international Future Problem Solving competition at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The three grade-level divisions are junior, grades four through six; intermediate, grades seven through nine; and senior, grades 10 through 12.
For tools, each contestant will be allowed a pencil, a thesaurus, a dictionary and her brain.
The three students know little about the international contest except that they will be given a one-page description of some kind of situation concerning disease control. Basically they will be asked: What to do?
If any of the three Norfolk students wins, there's a good chance her solutions will be sent on to the White House. That has usually happened in the past.
For the state contest, each competitor had to come up with 10 problems the moon colony faced, then pick the most pressing. A contestant next thought up 10 solutions for that most pressing problem and finally elaborated on the best of the 10 solutions.
Rachel, for example, sought ways to encourage communication between moon residents and the governing body back on Earth, so space laws would be made fairly.
She wrote as one solution, ``The people of Clarke could write suggestions and draw pictures of what Clarke is really like so that the space laws will be made fairly in 2080 and beyond on the moon.''
Katie sought ways to decrease the number of strict rules imposed on the Clarkeans. She suggested trying ``an isolated colony of a few people to test what would happen with fewer rules imposed on the people.''
Holly, who last year finished sixth at the international competition, sought to build a ``sense of community and peace.'' She would have each Clarkean attend a culture festival or learn a foreign language, so the moon residents would better understand each other.
Judges look for sound reasoning and creativity.
The steps the contestants must follow to identify problems and reach logical solutions presumably would work for real-life problems ranging from buying the best car to deciding which of two boyfriends to dump.
The Future Problem Solving Program was created two decades ago by University of Georgia psychology professor E. Paul Torrance to foster problem-solving among schoolchildren. Today, about 200,000 students from the United States and several other nations are involved.
In Virginia, 20 school districts compete in the program.
Including team competitions, the international contest will involve about 1,800 students.
At the Virginia contest this year, the lone team winner from South Hampton Roads was Kempsville Middle School in Virginia Beach.
The members were Jennifer Dozier, Michelle Piccioni, Matthew Sachs and Natalie Sidner.
by CNB