THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 30, 1995 TAG: 9506290224
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK PELLEGRINI, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
A group of Kempsville Middle School students proved recently that today's youth are getting an early start on becoming tomorrow's leaders by tackling issues that will likely confront generations to come.
Several eighth-graders taught by Carolyn Stamm beat 30 teams in the Future Problem Solving state championships in April, earning them a trip this month to the international competition in Providence, R.I.
Kempsville Middle students Amanda Dozier, Eugene Kelly, Sarah Margulies and Scott Sachs competed against 60 other teams representing all 50 states and several foreign countries. Fellow classmate Thiendi Le served as an alternate for the team and made the trip.
All five students returned home with a sixth-place finish, a lot of memories and a challenge to work even harder next year.
The eighth-grade students were quick to point out that the intermediate division is open to grades seven to nine, and the top five finishers in Providence were all comprised of ninth-graders.
The championships are only the year-end culminations of the ongoing Future Problem Solving Program. Founded in 1974 by Paul Torrance, it is aimed at developing analytical and creative thought processes in young students.
Going in to competitions, teams are given general topics, which they then prepare for by reviewing studies, articles and forums on the subject in after-school meetings.
Then at the competition, they are given a specific problem to solve within two hours.
The broad topic of the international finals was privacy.
The specific test involved a futuristic city in which every citizen wears an ``I-badge'' that monitors and records both the history and actions of the wearer. The team had to find creative ways to preserve intimacy in an age of complete information.
The Kempsville Middle School students brainstormed a solution that involved a product called the VR6, which they dreamed up. The high-tech mechanism would serve as a mental telephone system allowing wearers to tap into others' subconscious and bypass the I-badge. Its name and purpose comes from the virtual reality simulators that have become popular.
Such a device, they said, would allow citizens to remain intimate by being able to share their dreams and innermost secrets.
The approach was similar to other challenges the students had faced in other competitions.
In the Virginia state championships, held April 28 and 29 in Arlington, the students had to tackle the problem of prejudice.
Teams were presented with a mock situation in the year 2019, in which three families of strange customs and appearances move into the insular community of Clarksburg. The families are greeted first with curiosity, then exclusion and hate as their eccentricities become intolerable to the town's suspicious natives.
In the 120 minutes allowed, the four-member Kempsville team examined problems and possible solutions, arriving at a written proposal aimed at educating the parents of Clarksburg in hopes of dissipating learned prejudice in their children.
The international finals in Providence, held June 9 to 12, proved to be a real-life lesson in diversity for the students. They were housed at night in the Providence College dormitories with chanting Australians and kazoo-playing Texans - all of which made for a lot of fun, said Kelly.
``Practical jokes ran rampant,'' added Stamm.
The team got to do some sightseeing in Newport, R.I., as well.
Stamm's students weren't the only Virginia Beach competitors to earn a trip to Providence.
A team of four students from Kempsville High - including two older siblings of Kempsville Middle School members - also competed in the upper division for grades 10 to 12. They earned top honors in the state as well, and came home from the international competition with a fourth-place finish.
That Kempsville High School team included Jennifer Dozier, Matthew Sachs, Michelle Piccioni and Natalie Sidner. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by STEVE EARLEY
Amanda Dozier, left, Sarah Margulies and Eugene Kelly were among the
Kempsville Middle School students who competed against 60 other
teams representing all 50 states and several foreign countries.
Scott Sachs, left, and alternate Thiendi Le were also on the team
that finished sixth in the international problem solving event.
by CNB