On Saturday, February 27th, Mid-Prairie Middle and High School Future Global Issues Problem Solving teams put their creative problem solving skills to the test during the Iowa Regional Qualifying Bowl. Teams included 6th graders Kale Bailey and Quincy Duvall with 7th graders Landon Humble and Owen Zirkelbach, 8th graders Charlotte Sieren and Caitlyn Yoder, and 9th graders Abigail Fleming, Joe Hall, Phoebe Shetler, and Avery Slabaugh. A future scene pertaining to the topic of “Human Environmental Impact'' was given at the start of the competition. Teams spent two hours on the written competition following the six steps of the problem solving process to identify challenges and an underlying problem, brainstorm solutions, set and apply criteria to select the best solution, and write a detailed action plan of their solution. Coach Rebecca Rensema was proud of the intense effort, creativity, communication, and teamwork all the students put into the competition. The written competition packets were sent to evaluators across the state for judging in the next few weeks to determine which teams may qualify for the State Bowl at the end of April. Teams who compete at the State Bowl have a chance of advancing on to the International Bowl hosted in June.
Earlier this month, three Mid-Prairie students also submitted pieces for the scenario writing contest. Lilou Beachy (11th), Abigail Fleming (9th), and Maelys Beachy (6th) each wrote individual futuristic scenarios based on the topic of “Human Environmental Impact.” Writers set their stories to at least 20 years in the future and limited the word count to 1500 or less. Stories were imagined, but based on logical outcomes of actions or events taking place in the world. Scenario pieces will be evaluated on creative and futuristic thinking, idea development, style, voice, character development, mechanics, and topic-related research.