St. Anne School’s Future Problem Solving (FPS) program is designed to develop research, critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork abilities in students grades 3 through 8. The program melds the demanding intellectual challenge of creative problem solving with an interdisciplinary study of the future and promotes interpersonal communication, ethical leadership, and responsible group membership through its various components.

Students learn how to:
 
  • Research topics broadly and discerningly;

  • Dissect and structure complex problems;

  • Brainstorm creatively;

  • Collaborate through teamwork under time pressure;and
  • Develop informed, transparent decision-making.
 
Through participation in the program, students research a three to four topics a year in depth and explore social, political, economic, and technological implications. Students meet weekly and participate in two practice rounds to prepare for competitive events that can advance them to the annual state bowl and annual international competitions.
 
Multiple measures are used to identify candidates for the Future Problem Solving Program at St. Anne School.Students chosen for this program are invited based on a combination of CTP4 test scores, OLSAT scores, current standing in the program, and criteria-based teacher recommendation. Based on these criteria, invitations for the following year are sent out to studentsin the spring.

GLOBAL ISSUES PROBLEM SOLVING 

Global Issues Problem Solving (GIPS) is a competitive component of FPSPI which can be accomplished as a team (of 4) or individual activity in which participants research a series of global topics and learn a six-step creative problem solving process. Problem solvers apply their topic and creative problem solving knowledge to address a charge presented in an imagined situation, termed Future Scene.
Trained evaluators score student work and return it with feedback including suggestions for improvement. The top scoring teams and individuals on the qualifying problem are invited to affiliate FPS competitions. The winners of each respective affiliate FPS competition advance to the FPSP International Conference in June.

SCENARIO WRITING 

Scenario Writing is competition in which individuals (grades 4 – 12) develop short stories related to one of five FPS topics for the year. The story (1,500 words or less) is set at least 20 years in the future and is an imagined, but logical, outcome of actions or events taking place in the world today. The first place winner in each affiliate program is invited to the FPSP International Conference.
The Future Problem Solving program serves more than 260,000 students worldwide to develop young people globally to design and promote positive futures through problem solving using critical and creative thinking.
 

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