By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
A TENACIOUS team of problem solvers from a Casey state school have well and truly put the municipality on the map.
The student team from Fountain Gate Secondary placed second in the International Future Problem Solving world championships held in Iowa this month, which saw over 3000 students from across the globe showcase their problem solving skills on the world stage.
Casey Councillor Sam Aziz praised the team’s achievement at last week’s council meeting, as the group of Year 9 and 10 students – Paul, Liza, Jessica, Emily, Blerim and Rocky – made their way home from America after competing in the Community Problem Solving division of the competition.
The Fountain Gate team are the first-ever Victorian State School to win through to the world championships for Future Problem Solving.
Fountain Gate Secondary Assistant Principal Jodie Doble, who accompanied the children on the 12-day trip with Principal Vicki Walters, said the second place achievement capped off what had been an incredible ride for the students.
“They have come an amazing way. When I first started working with them they lacked a type of confidence, they had a really naive, quiet beauty about them,” she said.
“Now their public speaking is amazing, for them to be able to stand up on stage and present to an international and intelligent audience was fantastic.
“They are very creative and a very special young team.”
Ms Doble said she and Ms Walters had to take a back seat during the competition, held at Iowa State University, with the students judged on their ability to work independently.
“It was full on, the days pretty much started at 6am and concluded around about 11pm, and during that the students had to engage in a whole range of things,” she said.
“Our guys were first up on Friday morning, on Thursday they had blocks of time where they were able to set their display up and then the judging started.
“Then they have a half an hour presentation, a DVD presentation, then a fair where they had to sell their project.
“There was a lot of interest in the way the kids had designed a project that focused on putting the heart back into their local community.”
The student team, dubbed Encouraging Pride In our Community (EPIC), started its problem solving project last year by looking at what they felt were the major issues affecting the Fountain Gate area.
It soon became clear to the team that there was a need for greater pride in Fountain Gate and the students went about uncovering the history of their region, while finding a way to teach others about it.
EPIC have since been working with local community stakeholders to re-design the gardens and area surrounding the Robin Boyd fountain, a plan wholeheartedly supported by Narre Warren MPs and Casey councillors alike.
Ms Doble said the students would continue to campaign to see their project finally become a reality.
“The kids have been working very closely with Casey landscape designers, they’ve produced a final design with the kids,” she said.
“Council have approved them now and we’re just at the stage of securing funding.”
The City of Casey this week reallocated $55,000 from its 2014-15 Budget, adopted Tuesday night, to the Fountain Gate EPIC project.
To contribute to the project, contact the City of Casey on 9705 5200.
