Future Problem Solving Program

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The Future Problem Solving Program (FPSP) is an international academic competition. Over 250,000 students internationally participate in the Future Problem Solving program every year. Participating countries include the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Contents

[edit] Competition Divisions

Competition in the Future Problem Solving Program is divided into three divisions. These divisions are universal across all FPS competitions except for the Adult competition.

  • Junior: Grades 4-6
  • Intermediate: Grades 7-9
  • Senior: Grades 10-12

[edit] Levels of Competition

There are a total of three official levels of FPS competition. Not all levels are used in all competition types.

  • Regional
  • State (Affiliate)
  • International

[edit] International Conference

The International Conference (IC) is a conference held for competitors who have been invited to compete at the International level. The IC is typically held in early June.

A new Conference location is chosen every two years. The location for the 2006 and 2007 competitions will be at the Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. Dates of the 2007 competition will be May 31-June 3. Past locations have included the University of Kentucky, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Georgia.

[edit] Future Scene

The Future Scene (sometimes called the "fuzzy") is used in all FPS competitions except the Scenario Writing, Community Problem Solving, and Individual Community Problem Solving competitions. It is a short story, about a printed page, set at some point in the future (usually 20-30 years). Each Future Scene is based on one of the school year's competition topics, and is the basis for solving the problem pertaining to that topic.

The majority of a future scene provides details and challenges that are being faced in the scene. The last paragraph, called the "charge," instructs competitors as to what their exact role is in writing the booklet.

Typically, two versions of all future scenes are produced, with juniors' scenes being written with less advanced vocabulary.

[edit] FPS Process

The FPS Process is used in all competitions except the Scenario Writing and On-site Scenario Writing competitions. The steps of the process are as follows:

  1. Brainstorming Possible Challenges: Find possible problems within the given Future Scene.
  2. Choose Underlying Problem: Determine the most important or consequential problem.
  3. Brainstorming Solutions: Write solutions to solve the Underlying Problem.
  4. Create Criteria: Write 5 criteria by which to judge the solutions.
  5. Grid: Judge the solutions with the criteria, and determine which solution is the best overall.
  6. Develop Action Plan: The highest-scoring (best) solution, as determined by the grid, is elaborated into a detailed plan for the implementation of that solution.

Many of these steps have predetermined structure to guide teams in their writing. For instance, the underlying problem (or U.P.) must include parameters (date, topic, place).

[edit] Types of Competition

There are several different types of competition within the Future Problem Solving (FPS) program, the most popular of which is the Team Competition.

[edit] Booklet-writing Competitions

Competition in these is based on writing a booklet using the FPS process, which is then judged afterwards by official FPS evaluators.

[edit] Team Competition

Teams are composed of no more than 4 members. Teams compete by analyzing the Future Scene for the competition and applying the FPS Process, as it is listed above. The final product is known as a "booklet." When completing a competition booklet, each team can write a maximum of 16 problems and 16 solutions. Each team, regardless of the division, has no more than two hours to complete the FPS process when participating competitively.

All teams, worldwide, use the same Future Scene. Since the Future Scene for any given topic is not revealed until the actual competition, much of the team's accumulated research on that topic may not be applicable to the specific Future Scene. The overall intent of this method is to encourage creativity and spontaneous thought among the teams.

The first two problems of the year are practice problems. These problems do not technically have a time limit, although teams are expected to roughly compete within two hours. Such practice problems are not "competitive" in the sense that the qualfier (#3) problem, affiliate (#4) and international (#5) problems are; competitive conditions do not have to be observed, but otherwise the booklets for problems 1 and 2 are solved and evaluated the same way as any of the competitive problems.

Teams begin competition at the State level. In Australia, the top 15-20 teams in each division at the state competition move on to the National Final, commonly held in Melbourne. The top two teams in each division, in the Australian national final, will progress to the international final, which is held in the United States. Generally, in the United States, the top one to two teams in each division at the state level advance to the international final. Here the teams will compete against other teams from around the world. Teams are encouraged to complete the two optional Practice Problems before starting the official competition.

[edit] Individual Competition

Individual competitions are similar to team competitions, except that only one competitor completes a packet instead of four. Individual competitors can complete a maximum of 10 problems and solutions per packet. They also only have to grade 5 of their solutions in Step 5 as opposed to 10 solutions for teams.

Individuals may compete at the affiliate level by qualifying based on their work in problem 3 or by attending the state competition as an alternate for a team (depending on the affiliate, person's situation, etc). Regardless of how they qualify to affiliate finals, however, they qualifty to the International Conference independently of a team, even if at the state level, they serve as that team's alternate. For example, if Sue the alternate wins the individual competition and the team she attends the State Bowl with does terribly, Sue would qualify to International as an individual. Conversely, if the team qualified for IC, but Sue did not, she would not be able to compete as an individual at IC. She would, however, be eligible to compete as an alternate (see below).

Individual competition levels are the same as team competition levels.

[edit] Alternate Competition

"Alternates" are competitors who are randomly assigned into temporary teams at each competition. Some states feature this competition at their Regional or Affiliate bowls. However, Alternates cannot progress into higher levels of competition themselves; they are typically dependent on a particular team.

For example, if an FPS coach has five intermediate competitors, four could form a team while the fifth could be an Alternate. If the team advanced from the Regional level to the State level, the Alternate would advance also. If the team did not advance from State to Internationals, the Alternate would not advance.

[edit] Adult Competition

The Adult competition is completed at the International level and is intended for adults who accompany students to the International Conference. Like Alternates, adult competitors are randomly assigned into teams in order to complete a packet.

[edit] Scenario Writing Competition

A Scenario is a short story set at least 20 years in the future. Scenarios must be under 1500 words and must be based on one of the school year's competition topics. Unlike many other FPS competitions, Scenario Writing competitions are not timed. They are completed at the student's home or school and then mailed in for evaluation.

There are two levels of the Scenario Writing competition: Affiliate and International. The first place affiliate winner in each division is invited to the International Conference to compete in the on-site scenario competition. The scenarios that win first, second, and third in each division at the State level are sent to the International level for evaluation.

If a scenario places within the top five at the International level, the writer will be invited to IC if they have not already qualified for an invitation because of placing first in their state.

[edit] On-site Scenario Writing Competition

Competitors of the Scenario Writing competition who are invited to the International Conference can compete in the On-site Scenario Writing competition. Competitors are randomly grouped into teams of four.

Each team member is given a copy of the same Future Scene used in the other International-level competitions. Each team member picks an aspect of the Future Scene on which to write a scenario. Two hours are given to complete the competition.

[edit] Skit Competition

This is known as a Dramatic Presentation in some affilates, like New Zealand FPSP. In some levels of competition, teams compete in skit competitions, whereby they act out a short play (time limit is typically four minutes) based on their action plan. Individuals and alternates from the same school can help teams in their division (or a higher division) perform a skit. Teams are provided with a list of materials from which they may fashion their props and costumes, and are rewarded for using materials creatively and effectively/penalized for use of unsanctioned materials. Materials may include items like tinfoil, a stapler, a bowl, one roll of tape, a newpaper, and so on. Skits are evaluated by a judge or panel of judges.

Whether or not a skit competition is held at a Regional or Affiliate level depends on the FPS affiliate. Skits are always performed at the International level. At the international level, teams are provided with two compulsory props and a compulsory quote which must be incorporated into the team's skit presentation.

[edit] Community Problem Solving Competition

Community Problem Solving (CmPS) is a competition component of the FPSP that encourages students to identify and solve problems in their own community using the FPS Process. CmPS teams can have up to fifteen students (according to Virginia FPS, which does not specifiy whether this is a state or international limit). However, at the international level, only 12 students are able to compete. They go through the entire problem solving process over the course of the year using an issue from their community (or even current national and world issues) as the subject. After choosing an aspect of the issue to focus on as their underlying problem, they brainstorm a number of possible solutions. The most crucial step in CmPS is the action plan. In CmPS, the Action Plan is not merely a theoretical plan but a course of action that the CmPSers will attempt to carry out. While a detailed action plan for booklet-only FPSers would be written in ten to fifteen minutes, CmPSers carefully polish their plan and work out all the details. Throughout the process, CmPS teams document their work (research, process writing, implementation, and so on) and create a scrapbook/binder and other materials showing what they did, how they accomplished it, and the effect it had on their community. The author is unaware of how these projects are judged in different states/countries or how it differs. At the International Conference, the top teams bring their work and create a display for the judges to evaluate and for others at the conference to enjoy during the CmPS Fair. The CmPS team also presents their project to the official evaluators at the conference in an interview. Participants are judged on the project itself (as presented in the display and in interviews with the evaluators), how they work together in creating the display (while teams typically arrive with components already prepared, the display itself must be created at the conference), and their documentation of the process. Especially in the upper levels, participants are expected to do all of the work themselves with the coach serving as an advisor rather than facilitator.

[edit] Individual Community Problem Solving Competition

This is like CmPS but instead of having a team with multiple people, the competitors work by themselves.

[edit] History

The Future Problem Solving Program was founded in 1974 by the late Dr. E. Paul Torrance. He designed the program as a way of helping capable students think more creatively and productively about critical issues.

[edit] Competition Topics

FPS competition topics are voted upon by students and coaches of the FPS competition. Each year five topics are chosen:

  • 2 Practice Problems. In some affiliates, students complete only the first three steps for the first practice problem.
  • 1 Qualifying Problem. The results of this problem are used to select participants in the Affiliate Finals. Sometimes this takes the form of a Regional final.
  • 1 Affiliate Final Problem. This results of this problem select an affiliate's team and individual participants in the International Conference.
  • 1 International Conference Problem. This problem is solved at the International Conference and also dictates the topic for the on-site scenario competition.

[edit] Topic List

[edit] Current Topics (2006-2007)

The topics for the 2006-2007 school year are:

[edit] Upcoming Topics

[edit] 2007-08

Topics for the 2007-2008 school year are:

[edit] Past Topics

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] 2005-2006

[edit] 2003-2004

[edit] 2002-2003

[edit] 2001-2002

[edit] 2000-2001

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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