FPSPIC

The past few days in Bloomington, Indiana have been busy with volunteering at the Future Problem Solving International Conference (FPSPIC http://www.fpspi.org/).  I know it sounds like a nerdy thing - and it certainly is - but it was one of the best things I could have possibly done from fourth grade through my senior year in high school.  Future Problem Solving, for those sad souls who have never heard of this wonderful program, is a competition.  It goes like this...You have a team of four people. You have two hours.  You are given a topic - Pharmaceuticals, Cyber Bullying, Nanotechnology, Endangered Species, Pollution, etc. - then given weeks to do as much research as you can on that topic, both on its history and on the advancements today.  From that topic, you are given a future scene, called a "fuzzy."  The future scene is one page long and goes something like this: In the year 2045, scientists have found a cure for cancer through a genetically modified fish called the tigerfish, which lives on the Great Barrier Reef.  Their habitat, however, is threatened by solar energy pipelines running underwater that have burst, spilling toxic waste into the ocean.  We need you, the future problem solvers, to identify the challenges and present solutions in response to this dire situation.  Then your team develops sixteen potential challenges based on the future scene.  You pick the most convincing challenge, and that becomes the underlying problem, which you write up in more detail.  Then, the team develops sixteen solutions to that one underlying problem you have identified from the future scene.  After the solutions, the team creates five criteria to rank the solutions.  For example, which solution will be the most cost effective for the Australian government to implement within the next two years? The team ranks the solutions and the highest scoring solution is written up in great detail, accounting for as many potential obstacles and shortcomings as possible, as the Action Plan.  When the action plan is done, the scored competition is finished and you turn the packet in to the evaluators.  To give the evaluators time to score the packets, every team is required to create a four-minute skit that is the presentation of their Action Plan, using two surprise props as well as a list of materials that generally includes paper, markers, pipe cleaners, a stapler, tin foil (with box), and other assorted items.  The teams have a few hours to prepare, then present their skits to the other teams.  At the International Conference, the skits are given awards, just as the packets are.

Sounds like fun, right? For me, it was fantastic.  The topics vastly expanded my knowledge and held my interest, especially in elementary and middle school when I really wasn't challenged in anything else.  The competitive aspect was great fun, and the program taught me how to think and how to write. It is essential to present the ideas concisely and specifically, since space and time are limited.  Creativity is encouraged, and the off-the-wall ideas, as long as they were developed, got us just as many points as the safe ones.  Working with a team was sometimes a challenge, but often a joy.

I spoke today for some of the juniors and seniors who are going on to college soon about how FPS applied to my life.  It made me stop to think.  I hadn't thought about FPS in a long time - I'm only at this conference because my mother is an Affiliate Director and my sister is competing - but I realized that the skills I learned, even those from the skits, are the ones that I most value.  I know I hated the skits when I had to perform, but they are utterly hilarious and a low pressure way to perform in front of an audience (and receive positive feedback).  The creative and engaged thinking necessary for FPS stretched my imagination and my abilities, and I am incredibly grateful to have been and continue to be part of the FPS community.

I spent today and every day so far running around to different rooms for the kids.  I helped with registration, laughed at the insane memento exchange (there are about 47 states and 9 countries involved in FPS) monitored competitions, judged skits, watched skits, watched talent show auditions, then watched the talent show and just got home from chaperoning the senior division dance.  The kids have a ton of fun, or at least I know I did.  Tomorrow we have closing ceremony, then Mom, Kate and I are off driving to Macalester on the way home to see if it is the right fit for Kate for college. Oh, college...that is a whole new can of worms to open, and I can't wait to see my sister thrive there.