Thirteen Decorah High School Students Advance to International FPS

High School FPS students

Three Decorah High School groups have earned bids to attend the International Future Problem Solving Competition held in Bloomington, Indiana.  A Decorah High School group has received a bid to Internationals through competition in Malaysia.  Decorah sophomores Brad Suhr, Nick VandeKrol, Sam Iverson, and Dailen Folkedahl completed a Community Problem Solving Project entitled "Project RADICAL" with a partner team in Malaysia.  Details about their project can be found at http://www.facebook.com/ProjectRadical.  Community Problem Solving projects challenge students to take a problem within the community and generate and implement solutions to attempt to solve this problem.

Students from both Decorah Middle School and Decorah High School recently competed in the state FPS Global Issues Problem Solving competition.  High school seniors Jonathon Winter, Carolina Deifelt-Streese, Aaron Larson, and Connor Edrington took home first place in the senior division earning them a bid to the Internationals.  In addition the group also placed first in their Presentation of the Action Plan.  In the middle division, freshmen Simon Cropp, Teressa Lundtvedt, Gabby Bruns, Connor Freeman, and Tess Olinger took home third place with the Global Issues packet, qualifying them for the International Competition.  They also received sixth place with their Presentation of Action Plan.
 
Decorah had 18 other students who competed at the state competition and brought home the following awards:

Junior Division (4-6th Grade):

Fourth place GIPS packet and first place Presentation of Action Plan - sixth graders Luke Stock, James Paulson, Nathan Larson, and Avery Dugger

Middle Division (7-9th Grade):

Second place Presentation of Action Plan – eighth graders Andrew Larson, Drew Sullivan, Maggie Breitenstein, and Brianna Doyle.

Fourth place GIPS packet and third place Presentation of Action Plan – eighth graders Annika Wahlberg, Kalle Solberg, Katie Perez, and Laurel Fadness

Senior Division (10-12th grade):

Second place presentation of action plan and fifth place GIPS packet – high school juniors Eric Fulsaas, Paul Sullivan, Shelby Varney, Lucas Blekeberg, and Nathan Suhr. Global Issues Problem Solving requires groups of four students to read a futuristic scenario and then engage in the six-step problem solving process.  They find 16 possible problems from the future scene and determine one underlying problem. Next they create 16 solutions to solve their underlying problem and create criteria by which to evaluate the solutions.  After the evaluation they write an Action Plan detailing the implementation of their best solution.   All of this must be written in two hours or less.  The following morning students are required to present their action plan in the form of a skit.
 
Other students who qualified and participated in the state contest include sixth graders Tori Miller, Carina Yee, Ian Smith and Brannan Hogan. 

Another component of the FPS program is scenario writing.  Students select one of the five yearly topics and draft possible futuristic scenarios or stories about their topic.  Selected earlier this year as the fifth and sixth place Junior Division Scenario writers were, respectively, fifth graders Abby Pedlar and Evangeline Holyoake.
 
Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) engages students in creative problem solving. Founded in 1974 by creativity pioneer, Dr. E. Paul Torrance, FPSPI stimulates critical and creative thinking skills and encourages students to develop a vision for the future. At the Decorah Schools it is part of the Extended Learning Program for students in 6th -12th grades and is coached by Janelle Keune.   Decorah had a total of 63 students who participated in FPS this school year. 

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High School FPS students

Back Row L to R: Paul Sullivan, Lucas Blekeberg, Connor Edrington, Brad Suhr, Nick Vande Krol.
Middle Row: Shelby Varney, Eric Fulsaas, Nathan Suhr, Aaron Larson, Sam Iverson, Dailen Folkedahl  
Front Row: Connor Freeman, Simon Cropp, Teressa Lundtvedt, Gabby Bruns (missing Jonathon Winter and Carolina Deifelt-Streese)



Middle School FPS students

Back Row: L to R Brianna Doyle, Drew Sullivan, Andrew Larson, Laurel Fadness, Kalle Solberg, Annika Wahlberg, Katie Perez
Front Row: James Paulson, Luke Stock, Nate Larson, Avery Dugger, Tori Miller, Carina Yee, Ian Smith, Brannan Hogan (missing Maggie Breitenstien)


International Qualifiers in the Middle Division Global Issues  
L to R: Connor Freeman, Simon Cropp, Teressa Lundtvedt, Gabby Bruns, Tess Olinger


International Community Problem Solving Qualifiers  
L to R: Nick Vande Krol, Sam Iverson, Brad Suhr, Dailen Folkedahl


International Global Issues Qualifiers:
Aaron Larson, Jonathon Winter, Carolina Deifelt-Streese, and Connor Edrington

Middle School FPS students

International Qualifiers in the Middle Division Global Issues

International Community Problem Solving Qualifiers

International Global Issues Qualifiers