Philippa Stevenson: NZ kids solving future problems

Kids today. Spend all their time in front of the telly or the computer, never off their cellphones; stuff themselves with fast food and the landfills with their leftovers.

Place will go to hell in a hand basket once they are in charge. I ask you, where did we go wrong?

That's long been a common lament among people of a certain age. But some may be turning it on its head. These children could be excused for looking over their elders with a jaundiced eye and, staring deeply into their fruit juice, sigh despondently about "adults today".

It's especially likely if they have been involved in the Future Problem Solving Programme. This educational scheme for talented and gifted students, offered in American schools since 1974 and introduced here in 1990 by Whangarei teacher Robyn Boswell, is designed to stimulate critical and creative thinking and encourage students to develop a vision for the future.
Boswell is national director of Future Problem Solving NZ (FPSNZ), and Auckland University Education Faculty's gifted and talented adviser for Northland. She and former Tauranga teacher Peter Scott were the first to try FPS in their schools in 1990, surprising everyone by making the international finals at first attempt.

If you haven't heard of the programme you may have heard of its close cousin in which theory becomes action, Community Problem Solving. Last month, I mentioned the efforts of a team from Kaitaia Primary School which tackled problems of flooding in its area, and little Ahipara school's project to clean up the Wairoa river that flows through its Ninety Mile Beach township.

In June, those projects won their young teams, respectively, first and second place in their divisions in Future Problem Solving's international finals in the USA.

Or you may have heard of another Northland school, Oruaiti, where students are trying to improve the health of people in the community by encouraging healthy diets and greater fitness, or Peria school, which is working to save the district's kiwi that are threatened by dogs.

Each year, the FPS programme involves more than 250,000 students from here, the US, Canada, Australia, Korea, Malaysia, and Russia. Around 120 schools throughout New Zealand take part and for the past three years there's been a special effort to involve Northland schools.

Former Kerikeri Primary School teachers Pam Scahill and Debbie Green have worked part-time for FPSNZ, funded by an Education Ministry grant, to promote Community Problem Solving (CPS) in six schools each year.

Scahill describes the programme as "authentic learning". It makes the students' education relevant to them and their community, she said.

There are three aspects to the programme. FPS students discuss three topics each year, which range as widely as terrorism, the depletion of ocean species, homelessness and 21st century agriculture.

If they want to enter competitions, after evaluation their work can go on to national finals from where it may qualify for the international competition held in the US each June.

CPS students identify a problem in their own community and use their new skills to put their plans into action.

The third aspect is scenario writing in which a student works alone to write a 1500 word futuristic short story, based on their research.

On Saturday, the six schools Scahill and Green have worked with this year will be presenting their projects at Kerikeri Primary School between midday and 2pm.

The Maunu school team wanted to make Whangarei's Caffler Park safer, the Oturu school group wanted a footpath to the school, Kaitaia College's team wanted better lunchtime activities for students, the group at new Tautoro school wanted a new image for the school created from two former schools.

The Oruaiti school team has had its health initiative and the Peria school its kiwi conservation project.

The national finals in which 33 teams will compete are being held at Carey Park, Henderson on the last weekend of the month.