BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — A team of Eden Elementary students is preparing to represent Martin County on the world stage after earning the first berth in county history to the Future Problem Solving (FPS) International Conference.

The school’s junior division Future Problem Solving team — Paige Stafford, Parker Stafford, Peyton Crum and Keilin Whitten, with alternates Deacon Muncy and Jaxson Maynard — will compete June 10-14 at Indiana University Bloomington after placing third at the Kentucky Future Problem Solving state finals.

The accomplishment marks a historic first for Martin County and will put the students in competition with more than 2,000 participants representing about 150 teams from around the world.

“It’s almost unbelievable,” Eden guidance counselor and academic team coach Lora Hale told members of the Kiwanis Club during a luncheon Thursday in Inez. “We’re just so proud of them.”

Hale said the students’ success is the result of months of intensive critical thinking, research and collaboration.

“I just want to say how very proud I am of our students,” Hale said. “This was my first year of getting to work with Future Problem Solving. Ms. [Chasity] Crum has been our coach for several years, and they’ve done very well in the past. I’ve loved every minute of it.”

Whitten, Crum and Muncy, who accompanied Hale to the Kiwanis luncheon, explained that Future Problem Solving challenges participants to analyze future-oriented scenarios and develop innovative solutions to complex problems.

“FPS is a six-step problem-solving process that takes place in a future scene,” Crum said.

Teams begin by identifying 16 challenges within a scenario. They then select an underlying problem to solve, generate 16 possible solutions and create criteria to evaluate each proposal.

“You generate questions to ask yourself to rank criteria on a grid,” Crum said.

Using that evaluation process, students score their ideas and determine the strongest solution. They then develop an action plan that explains who will implement the solution, what will happen, when it will occur, how it addresses the problem, and why it should succeed.

The final phase requires students to transform that action plan into a skit.

“They have to act it out in front of everyone onstage,” Hale said.

This year’s international topic centers on forestry and related issues.

“It could be anything from deforestation to wildfires and diseases,” Whitten said. “We’re planning, for our skit, to do something like ‘The Lorax.’ We will make costumes and do acts that show our action plan.”

The competition places significant restrictions on the materials students can use to create costumes and props.

“They gave us a list,” Hale said. “It’s things like paper, aluminum foil and paper plates, so they have to be really creative.”

Strict time limits intensify the challenge. Students receive a future scenario and must complete the entire six-step FPS process in just two hours.

“Once they get the future scene and do all six steps, they’re given two hours to finish it,” Hale said.

Afterward, teams have only a few hours to create and rehearse their skit.

“They’ve never had to do that at any competition,” Hale said. “So this is the first time.”

The international competition follows an elimination format, culminating in a final round.

Hale said Chris Fields, Kentucky’s FPS state coordinator, believes Eastern Kentucky teams have an opportunity to compete at the highest level.

“He’s very positive and optimistic that teams in Eastern Kentucky can compete with the world,” Hale said.

The Eden students agreed to present their international skit to the Kiwanis Club after returning from Indiana.

State competition

Kiwanis members asked the team to talk about their state competition.

The team’s topic for state competition was surveillance.

“That’s any type of monitoring—fingerprints on your phone, store security cameras, anything that monitors you,” Whitten said. “One was a gated community where everything was monitored. You couldn’t leave without being noted, and everywhere you went, you were monitored. At work, your productivity was monitored. If you went to a gym, how much work you put in was monitored.”

Hale said the team had to come up with different solutions.

“For each solution, they had to get 20 different categories,” she said. “They have to think very intensely about all these categories.”

Whitten, Crum and Muncy shared some of the core solution categories: physical health, psychological health, transportation, communication, aesthetics, social relationships, technology, politics, ethics, law, basic needs, business and commerce, defense, culture and religion, economics, environment, recreation and science.

The competition is so exacting that a single word can affect a team’s score. Hale recalled that judges deducted points because the team used the word “ensure” in one solution.

“Had they used “improve,” they may have ranked second or first in the state,” she said. “That one word cost them 20-some points in that part of the rubric.”

Given the intensity of the upcoming World Finals, each team member has a job to do.

“They’re all working their hearts out,” said Hale.

Whitten is the son of Christopher Whitten and Denise Smith Whitten. Crum is the son of Kevin Crum and Chasity Crum. Muncy is the son of Jonathan Muncy and Vicky Muncy.

Kiwanis members chose to donate $500 to help the team pay travel expenses.

“What we’re here for is to support the kids in our community,” Kiwanis president Melissa Phelps said. “The Harvest Fest is the biggest thing we do for them, but we also like to support the different groups that are getting opportunities. We want to make sure it’s financially possible.”

Thanking the club, Hale said she did not expect that amount.

“We shake a lot of lemonade for that money,” Phelps said lightheartedly. “So thank you all for buying the lemonade.”

Kiwanis members wished the team members and Hale success at World Finals.

“Know that your community is very proud of you,” Phelps said.