April 30, 2010
Team found winning entry in translation, problem solving
Members of Memorial’s Future Problem Solving team include, kneeling, Lindsey Paris and Cassidy Tanguay; standing Corinne Casino, Carlo Casino, Anna Vettiankal, Evie Beckert, Helen Beckert, Mareea Thomas, Marshall Howell, Laurel Humbert and Luke Jillson. Not pictured are team members, Aviayna Thomas, Maxx Hagan, Maggie Hagan, Anna Leigh McVicar, Hannah Kissel, and Eric Shoemaker. Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
The Memorial High School Future Problem Solving teams “had a great deal of success this year,” according to their coach, Melanie L. Humbert.
“Our Global Issues Problem Solving Teams placed first, second and fourth in the senior division at State Bowl and the freshman team placed fourth in the middle division. All of the teams earned ribbons. I was quite proud of their accomplishments.”
Humbert also said that a Community Problem Solving Team this year placed first in the senior division at State Bowl. In a letter to friends and alumni of the school, she described it as an event that entails finding a problem in the community and taking the steps to correct it.
“An 11-member team chose to translate tour information from local parks and museums to increase the enjoyment for non-English speaking visitors to our city. We are especially proud to assist the Reitz Home Museum since the Reitz family is responsible for our school. We also translated information for the LST Memorial Ship, Angel Mounds State Park, Walther’s Golf and Fun and the Audubon Mill Park in Henderson.”
Humbert said all 16 students in the program have earned an invitation to the International Conference, to be held the week of June 10 at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse. Stu-dents from most of the 50 states will be in attendance as well as students from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain, Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong. Ten of the students have indicated they may attend while six have already made other plans and cannot go.
In 2009, the Future Problem Solving team placed ninth in the world. They were competing against state champions, state runners up and national champions.
“They take this quite seriously,” Humbert said.
The registration cost which includes room and board is $425 per student. The Com-munity Problem Solving team has been actively fund raising and has earned approximately $1,000 for the team. However, this only gives each student $100 toward the fee, Humbert said.
In addition to registration cost the team will have travel cost, as this will be a long drive with at least one overnight stay.
Humbert noted that the friends and alumni “have been most generous in offering the students assistance in covering expenses,” and concluded, “I hope that you will be in a position to assist us again.”