On Tuesday, Brisbane Girls Grammar School students from Year 8 to 11 competed in the 2021 Future Problem Solving (FPS) National Qualification Booklet Competition. Teams of four students from all around Australia have only two-and-a-half hours to complete the booklet process. First, they read a future scene set in 2056 ‘Human Environmental Impact.’ This timely topic is highly complex and covers a broad range of potential risks to human life. Next, they had to uncover 16 problems/challenges associated with the future scene, select one underlying problem, develop 16 futuristic solutions to that underlying problem and then develop a plan of action for solving their most favourable solution. Research and knowledge of future trends are valued very highly in this competition and have been the focus of our preparations this year.
This year we had the added complexity where some of our teams had members from both BGGS and BGS working online. Fortunately, some recent practice collaboration online aided this teamwork. Qualification booklets have now been sent away for marking by professionals around Australia. We are hoping our teams qualify for the National Competition, taking place in October. If successful at the National Competition, teams are invited to attend the International Competition held in the USA in 2022.
FPS is an academic competition in which students apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to hypothetical future situations. The program looks at current technological, geopolitical, and societal trends and projects them 20 to 30 years into the future to train students to develop solutions to challenges they may face as adults.
Ms Lesley Roy
Future Problem Solving Coach
