BLANCHARDVILLE - Pecatonica High School's Future Problem Solving team returned home recently from Michigan as winners of an international contest - and a three-foot tall trophy.
The 18-member team had spent the entire school year working to solve the problem of teen driving safety.
The students choose their particular problem "because they are aware of teen driving safety problems and a lot of them have been in accidents," said their team coach, Irene Middlemas, Pecatonica High Schools' library and media technology teacher.
Middlemas has been coaching Future Problem Solving teams for 20 years.
"Fortunately, in this school, only one (student) has been killed (recently), but there have been a lot of accidents," she said. "Their friends in neighboring districts have been fatalities."
The Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) engages students in creative problem solving. Founded by creativity pioneer, Dr. E. Paul Torrance, FPSPI stimulates critical and creative thinking skills and encourages students to develop a vision for the future. FPSPI features curricular and co-curricular competitive, as well as non-competitive, activities in creative problem solving.
Along the way to the international level they took top honors with their project at the Wisconsin Future Problem Solving Program, competing against more than 1,000 students in Wisconsin.
Top state performers attend the FPS International Conference, along with over 250,000 students from all over the United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, and Singapore. The 2009 Future Problem Solving Program International Conference, held May 28 - May 31 at Michigan State University, in Lansing, Mich., marked the program's 35th Anniversary.
Since it began in 1981, Wisconsin's program has produced top honors in many areas at the International level.
Surveys taken by the team revealed their effort had a noticeable effect on their peers. At the beginning of the school year, only 65 percent of students surveyed said they buckled up, about the same as Wisconsin's state average. A follow-up survey in mid-May revealed 86 percent of students were using their seatbelts, and 100 percent of high school senior and junior girls were buckling up.
To earn their trip to the international conference Pecatonica students performed a series of projects on which they were judged.
In October, the team participated in National Teen Driving Safety Week by creating posters and public service announcements to remind students how deadly distractions can be while driving.
The team declared February 16 to 20 DRIVE (Drive Responsibly In Vehicle Everywhere) Week. Activities included an all-school assembly showing of the Wisconsin DOT video "Zero in Wisconsin: 10 Stories - One Vision." One of the individuals featured in the video, a sole survivor of an accident at age 17, addressed the students.
The assembly was followed by activities, like texting dodgeball and playing Mario Brother's video driving games while on the phone, demonstrating how interruptions can inhibit concentration while driving.
In March, team members spent a morning talking to elementary students about the importance of wearing a seatbelt and being good passengers.
In April, other speakers, effected by fatal traffic accidents shown in the DOT video, spoke to the middle and high school students; a demonstration was carried out followed by a mock accident involving local fire departments, EMS, and law enforcement agencies.
At the international conference, the students were required to put together a display booth, without help from their coach, and to pass a 15-30 minute interview by two evaluators.
"They were judged on their knowledge of the subject, and how passionate they were about it," Middlemas said.
The 18-member team had spent the entire school year working to solve the problem of teen driving safety.
The students choose their particular problem "because they are aware of teen driving safety problems and a lot of them have been in accidents," said their team coach, Irene Middlemas, Pecatonica High Schools' library and media technology teacher.
Middlemas has been coaching Future Problem Solving teams for 20 years.
"Fortunately, in this school, only one (student) has been killed (recently), but there have been a lot of accidents," she said. "Their friends in neighboring districts have been fatalities."
The Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) engages students in creative problem solving. Founded by creativity pioneer, Dr. E. Paul Torrance, FPSPI stimulates critical and creative thinking skills and encourages students to develop a vision for the future. FPSPI features curricular and co-curricular competitive, as well as non-competitive, activities in creative problem solving.
Along the way to the international level they took top honors with their project at the Wisconsin Future Problem Solving Program, competing against more than 1,000 students in Wisconsin.
Top state performers attend the FPS International Conference, along with over 250,000 students from all over the United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, and Singapore. The 2009 Future Problem Solving Program International Conference, held May 28 - May 31 at Michigan State University, in Lansing, Mich., marked the program's 35th Anniversary.
Since it began in 1981, Wisconsin's program has produced top honors in many areas at the International level.
Surveys taken by the team revealed their effort had a noticeable effect on their peers. At the beginning of the school year, only 65 percent of students surveyed said they buckled up, about the same as Wisconsin's state average. A follow-up survey in mid-May revealed 86 percent of students were using their seatbelts, and 100 percent of high school senior and junior girls were buckling up.
To earn their trip to the international conference Pecatonica students performed a series of projects on which they were judged.
In October, the team participated in National Teen Driving Safety Week by creating posters and public service announcements to remind students how deadly distractions can be while driving.
The team declared February 16 to 20 DRIVE (Drive Responsibly In Vehicle Everywhere) Week. Activities included an all-school assembly showing of the Wisconsin DOT video "Zero in Wisconsin: 10 Stories - One Vision." One of the individuals featured in the video, a sole survivor of an accident at age 17, addressed the students.
The assembly was followed by activities, like texting dodgeball and playing Mario Brother's video driving games while on the phone, demonstrating how interruptions can inhibit concentration while driving.
In March, team members spent a morning talking to elementary students about the importance of wearing a seatbelt and being good passengers.
In April, other speakers, effected by fatal traffic accidents shown in the DOT video, spoke to the middle and high school students; a demonstration was carried out followed by a mock accident involving local fire departments, EMS, and law enforcement agencies.
At the international conference, the students were required to put together a display booth, without help from their coach, and to pass a 15-30 minute interview by two evaluators.
"They were judged on their knowledge of the subject, and how passionate they were about it," Middlemas said.