Engagement

NYFPS provides the catalyst for participants to engage their peers and communities on relevant issues. These engagements have a lasting positive impact. As NYFPSers, participants contribute to an active network that spans the globe. FPSers also endeavor to spread awareness about the importance of creative problem solving and encourage greater collaboration towards fulfilling NYFPS' mission.

New York Academic Competition | New York School Community Service | Future Problem Solving Program

Engagement Case Studies:

Civil And Community Engagement

Community Problem Solvers (CmPS) apply the FPS six-step problem solving process to tackle issues in their local communities. This competitive component teaches students the importance of service and civil engagement. CmPS students' engagement can take many forms, from voluntarism to community involvement to legislative participation. Students develop an understanding of personal responsibility to actively engage in their community. Furthermore, CmPS competitors bring awareness to issues when they present their projects at the New York State Conference and International Conference; thus sparking an ongoing dialogue around these issues.

New York CmPS state champions in the past five years tackled and created conversations around issues that included:

Kindness at their school.
Safety of the street in front of their school.
Mental health: students' stress resulting from the pandemic.
Online safety awareness.
Importance of hand washing to reduce spread of germs.

New York School Community Service | Future Problem Solvers

Local Library
Presentation

After creating a book on managing stress, a CmPS team presented it to their local library.

Governmental
Recognition

NYC Council presented a proclamation to a CmPS team for their accomplishments.

Fitness Center
Presentation

A CmPS team presented easy internet and social media safety tips at a local fitness center.

School District
Interview

NYFPSers discussed problem solving in an interview shown across their school district.

Drive The Conversation

Students competing in Global Issues Problem Solving (GIPS) and Scenario Writing (SW) work on Annual Topics covering increasingly important trends. As they research, analyze, and discuss each topic, students generate greater awareness to these relevant topics as well as increased understanding. These engagements bring teachers, peers, parents, and the community into the conversation. By presenting their action plans to in creative ways for the Presentation of Action Plan competition, GIPS competitors spark discussions beyond the classroom and include the community in the problem solving process.

New York Academic Competition | New York School Competition | Future Problem Solving Program

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Network Of Passionate Problem Solvers

Students, teachers, and parents from across the State come together at the New York State Conference. This event provides the venue for participants with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to work together on the common goal of problem solving. The interaction between diverse perspectives create better solutions. Participants not only build connections, but they bring back new ideas to their local communities. Students who attend the International Conference learn about different cultures from students who come from around the world and teach them about New York. Similarly, educators can network to exchange ideas.

Engagement with the FPS community doesn't only happen at the conferences, but all along the way. Participants tap into the New York network of educators to unlock interactive learning and exchange ideas. Teachers and their students have collaborated with their peers in other states; for example, students in Queens, NYC exchanged CmPS ideas with a Texas class through video call. Teachers connect with their peers in nearby districts to share best practices, tips, and even professional development options. Schools that participate in NYFPS increase their interactions with others within their own school districts to cooperate on lesson planning, fundraising efforts, shared FPS events, and competition travel logistics. These collaborations result in greater recognition of education programs at schools by local government officials. Parents of students also find themselves engaging with other parents of children doing FPS across the U.S. and abroad.

The engagement doesn't only happen on the participant level. NYFPS is able to interact with educators across the U.S. and other countries on how to teach creative problem solving to students. Affiliate programs share ideas and educational research. These engagements result in a stronger program in New York.

Jason Navarino | New York Future Problem Solving

Active Outreach

NYFPS takes an active role in promoting FPS and advocating creative problem solving education. We are active in educator outreach through efforts such as attending conferences and offering on-site trainings. For example, NYFPS has presented at NYC public schools' Chancellor and Principals meeting which provided exposure of the FPS program to leaders of one of the largest public schools systems in the country. NYFPS also actively generates engagement by providing resources to teachers, parents, and students to help create productive conversations or build connections.

As students graduate, we offer opportunities for alumni to remain engaged with the program as mentors, volunteers, and evaluators. We also connect with FPS alumni who moved to our state to keep them in the network. Alumni have been keynote speakers at the State and International Conferences to share how they apply FPS in their careers. By sharing firsthand experiences, alumni give students a broad sense of how problem solving can be applied beyond school and help students develop career aspirations early on.

Our Partners

Companies and organizations partner with NYFPS to support its mission and help students become the problem solving leaders of tomorrow as they grow through the program.

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To maximize our impact, NYFPS not only has sponsorship partners, but we also partner with other organizations that have compatible missions. We work with our community partners on specific projects or making a greater impact toward our mission.

One of our community partners, Future Problem Solving Program of New Jersey, Inc., works closely with us on GIPS evaluations. By combining resources and people power, we are able to provide mutual assistance with any surges in demand for evaluators and also allow for cross pollination of evaluation ideas with our neighboring state affiliate. This partnership has allowed us to share best practices, identify process improvements, uncover new student error trends, and expose students to a more diverse pool of evaluator knowledge in feedback reports.