1997 School Magazine

cg;irls cg;rnmmar ~cbool ;llilrisbane 1997 ----------

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Future Proble01 Solving

F uture Problem Solving is growing fast. Staff and students at BGGS have become involved on a number of different levels this year and it seems that the more one lmows about the process, the more it has to offer.

weekend, flying down to Melbourne VERY early on the Friday morning, then writing the booklet, on "Cybernetics", in the afternoon. Saturday was a "rest" day while the booklets were evaluated, and we took the opportunity to explore Melbourne.

It was a bitterly cold day, with wind and rai n but, nothing daunted, we headed for th~ Markets and then walked to Flinders Street Station and across the river to the Art gallery. Along the way we fortified ourselves with numerous cups of coffee and finally spent the evening in Lygon Street. In a short time we felt we had really had a good taste of Melbourne. On Sunday we found ourselves congratulating the eventual winners, PLC, who went on to the International Finals in America and won that too, so that the current International Champions are Aus- tralian. This is a great boost to the program

We had six teams entered in the national competition this year, with five of those teams learning the process from scratch, so that not only did they have to research the topic in hand but they also had to master the thinking and writing skills in order to write the booklet. The three topics this year were "Homes of the Future", "Extraterrestrial Life" and "Cashless Society". For each one, stu- dents had to read a "future scene" and follow a six step process of: brainstorming and writing up twenty problems, selecting an underlying problem, then addressing this by developing twenty solutions. The next step

(L-R) Fiona Laza,; Syndia Lazarus, Elin Chai·les-Edwards and

Elizabeth Ahem in Melbourne.

here . Past students and our current Year Twelve team are to be commended for making a real contribution to the program thi s year by giving up their time to be trained as evaluators. Elizabeth, Elin, Fiona and Syndia were joined by Karen Dancer, Shona Nystrom, Miranda Siu, and Elise Rogers. The program cannot work without people willing to mark the booklets and as each one takes at least an hour this is a real service and one that is appreciated.

was to develop five criteria to judge their solutions and thereby select the best solution and then write this up. By dint of practice and effort, this whole process eventually had to be completed in two hours! And it was. One of our teams has made it to the National Finals in Melbourne in October this year, Year Nine students: Kalani Dias, Sophie Ferris, Sarah Hack and Eleanor O'Gorman. Con- gratulations! This team can build on the experience of the Year Eleven team that went last year: Elizabeth Ahern, Elin Charles- Edwards, Fiona Lazar and Syndia Lazarus . We had a great

FUTURE PROBLEM SOLVING Back Row (L-R): K. Mendra, G. Cooke, R. Farley, E. O'Go1man, H. Smith, A, Chardon, L. Cameron, M. Butnoris, j. Dowsett Seco11d Row (L-R): E. Pri01; K. Hollingsworth, K. Dias, E. Velkovic, S. Ferris, j. Mantle, C. Marley, S. Hack, A. Sandstrom, E. \Vebb, j. Cheung Fro11t Row (L-R): E. Chai·les-Edwards, S. Lazarus, Mrs K. Wain, Mrs A. Stubbington, E. Ahem, F. Lazar Abse11t: Mr A. Allinson, Mrs L. Fairlie ----------------------- 82 -----------------------