Whitcomb Students Compete at Problem Solving

On Feb. 8, Whitcomb Middle School students grades five through eight participated in the Future Problem Solvers Qualifying Competition.

The school fielded 12 teams totaling about 48 students, who worked on a scenario they had never seen before on the topic of “surveillance.” Each team had two hours to use the six-step problem-solving process to identify challenges, an underlying problem, solutions, and a best solution based on the provided criteria. Each team then wrote a report on its work, which was submitted to the Massachusetts Future Problem Solvers organization. Finally, each team created a brief skit for parents – who served as competition proctors – to “sell” their solutions.

The Massachusetts FPS will identify the work of the top teams across Massachusetts and invite those teams to compete at the Massachusetts Future Problem Solvers State Competition to be held on April 5 at Babson College. The top winner in each division then will represent Massachusetts at the Future Problem Solvers International Competition in June.

Future Problem Solvers is an International Program that includes teams from more than 20 countries from around the world.

Whitcomb students who participated in the competition are:

• Fifth grade – Sarah Barroso, Isabella Beane, Clelie Bishop, Arden Dailida, Brian Falcao, Samantha Gamber, Dylan Green, Matthew Hall, Cameron Hunt, Laure Labarre, Kevin Lozouski, Mithran Panchamoorthy, Eva Pelliccio, Nate Purches, Allison Silva, Paige Watters, Matthew Young.
• Sixth grade – Jacob Fichtner, Toby Finke, Abraham Rufo Costa, Breana Zindle,
• Seventh grade – Inez Arellano, Trent Coltran, Rachel Drummey, Samantha Edwards, Jackie Forman, Christiana Kearns, Raj Khanderia, Jaelyn Kassoy, Sydney Kinz, Lauren Munday, Hannah Nezuch, Michael O’Donnell, Ben Patterson, Noah Rosenzweig, Hunter Woodworth.
• Eighth grade – Lillian Dichmann, Cyra Katoch, Jacqueline Lacerra, Bryanna Noronha, Abigail Purches, Shannon Roselli, Maria Stefanova, Kate Walsh, Violet Woundy. 

Congratulations to all participants!

Submitted by the Marlborough Public Schools.