Local problem-solving students ready to ponder at international competition

This week at an international competition, a dozen Butte students will come up with solutions to problems that may arise from worldwide communication advances decades in the future.

By Kristen Inbody of The Montana Standard

However, before they could leave Wednesday for the International Problem Solvers Conference at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, they had to tackle one last problem: how to decorate a shirt to wear at that conference.

It was a cinch, considering their diverse and creative thinking skills — which earned three Butte teams the chance to compete at the

international level.

Becky Patton, a junior on the Butte High team, hand-painted bronze letters reminiscent of the Mining City on her shirt. This is her third trip to internationals. She coaches the East Middle School seventh-grade team.

"They’re very unique in their thinking. It’s always a surprise what they come up with," she said.

Members of the East team are Sara and Melissa Bogert, Renee Griffith and Patton’s little sister, Cara Patton. The Hillcrest sixth-grade team includes Gwenn Abbott, Clint Earhart, Keanne Lambertson and Anastasia Young. For Butte High, members are Ashley Huft, Laura Moon and Patton. Chris Anderson is an alternate. Ashleigh Rowe is competing as an individual. Accompanying the teams are Coaches Colleen Schulte and Mary North-Abbott.

Throughout the year, the teams studied sports medicine, e-commerce and nanotechnology (picture a car engine the size of a nickel). At state, they tackled problems arising from DNA identification. At the international conference, they’ll look at worldwide communication issues.

Future Problem Solvers use a six-step format in which students analyze a scene set 30 to 50 years in the future. With a time limit of two hours, they come up with possible problems in categories such as technology, education and defense, and then determine the underlying problem. Then the students develop 16 possible solutions and use five criteria to determine which solution is the best. The final step is the development of an action plan.

The six-step process has helped seventh-grader Renee Griffith develop her ability to think well under deadline pressure, she said. And, it has taught her to work through problems as part of a group.

"You can’t think of all the solutions by yourself so it’s interesting to see what the others on the team will think of," Griffith said.

Cara Patton, who painted her shirt with meticulously spaced letters of alternating colors, said Future Problem Solvers has helped her learn how to handle challenges in her life, like budgeting time for her homework.

Keanne Lambertson, a sixth grader in her third year of competition, said that by researching Problem Solving issues, she’s learned about topics that stump her classmates.

"It’s interesting to talk about stuff that other kids would go like, ‘what?’" Lambertson said.

While scrawling, "We’re going for the gold!" on his shirt, Hillcrest’s Clint Earhart said he was nervous about heading to his first competition.

"It’s nerve-wracking to think there’s 2,000 kids from all over the world going against us four," Earhart said. "It’s pretty scary."

— Kristen Inbody is a reporter for The Montana Standard.

http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2003/06/05/newsbutte/hjjgjdjejbiaga.txt