Turtleback Elementary, Rancho Bernardo High problem solvers compete at state meet

Turtleback Elementary has once again had students win awards in the Future Problem Solvers state competition and a student qualify for next month’s international contest.

FPS is a contest for elementary through high school students that has teams and individuals devise solutions to complex problems. They are given a subject to research weeks in advance. During the two-hour contest, they write a 12-page booklet in which they identify 16 challenges to an issue related to their research subject, select its underlying problem, devise 16 solutions and criteria for evaluation, and write an essay explaining what they have determined to be the best solution.

Competitors — as individuals or teams — are judged on fluency and flexibility of thinking, for originality of ideas, their thinking skills and clarity of their writing, said coach Nancy Myles. The junior division is for fourth, fifth and sixth graders; the middle division is for seventh, eighth and ninth graders; and the senior division is for 10th, 11th and 12th graders.

This year, students had to research the topic of propaganda for the qualifying problem portion of the contest, held in February. Based on their scores, some of Turtleback’s 20 competitors were invited to compete at the state meet on April 25 and 26 in San Mateo, California, where their new research topic was enhancing human potential.

Fifth grader Anish Rajendran placed second at the state competition as an individual in the junior division. He has qualified to compete as an alternate at the international meet that will be held in Ames, Iowa, this June. His new research topic is intellectual properties.

Fifth graders Jenna Cardno, Lauren Crane, Kylie Norvell Cruz and Maddie Engblom were invited to compete in the state competition as a team based on their performance in the qualifying competition.

Turtleback was also allowed to take two alternates, fifth graders Anusha Kadiyala and Nivedita Rethnakar, who were placed on teams consisting only of other alternates. Myles said the alternate teams competed only against each other and Anusha’s team placed second in the junior division. Alternate teams are not eligible to advance to the international contest.

All seven Turtleback fifth graders also competed together at the state meet in the Action Plan Skit contest, where they placed fourth.

In addition, Rancho Bernardo High School freshman Chloe Chose, who is also coached by Myles, qualified for the state meet as an individual competitor in the middle division. At the state tournament she placed fifth.