Students in grades 4 through 12 were challenged to devise solutions for the problems related to ‘Enhancing Human Potential’ in the Washington Future Problem Solving (FPS) State Bowl at Warm Beach Camp in Stanwood April 15-17. Several Bellevue students from elementary to high school qualified to compete in the state level. Michelle Benzinger and Sheuli Chowdhury coach Spiritridge students, Debby Benzinger coaches Odle students and Michael O’Bryne coaches Interlake students. The FPS program stimulates critical and creative thinking skills, encourages students to develop a vision for the future, and prepares students for leadership roles.
2015 State Global Team Problem Solving Competition Awards
Junior Division (Grades 4-6):
1st Place: Spiritridge Elementary
Team members: Neil Chowdhury, Jake Donner, Lucas Hou, and Carina Sun
Intermediate Division (Grades 7-9):
1st Place: Odle Middle School
Team members: Derek Zhang, Ben Krautwald, Aaron Wu, and Abhinav Bandari
3rd Place: Odle Middle School
Team members: Alex Li, Patrick Kim, Caleb Lee, and Ethan Ling
Senior Division (Grades 10-12):
1st Place: Bellevue Independent (Team PRISM)
Team members: Rana Bansal (Lakeside), Po Bodin (Interlake), and Renhao Hu (Newport)
2nd Place: Interlake High School
Team members: Kathleen Chen, Grant Chen, Mayhul Arora, and Patrick Liu
3rd Place: Interlake High School
Team members: Andrew Xue, Jerry Xu, David Hwang, and Erich Liang
State Individual Awards
Intermediate Individual Problem Solving
1st Place – Eshika Saxena, Odle Middle School
2nd Place – Aditya Kannan, Odle Middle School
Intermediate Scenario Writing
1st Place – Surtaz Khan, Odle Middle School,
Senior Scenario Writing
3rd Place – Ayana Harscoet, Interlake High School
The first and second place winners are moving on to compete internationally. The 2015 International Conference will be held at Iowa State University June 10 – 14. The topic is ‘Intellectual Property.’ Future Problem Solving Program International involves thousands of students annually from Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States. Learn more at http://fpspi.org/