- December 3, 2024
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Four Flagler Palm Coast High School sophomores solved the autonomous vehicle problem at the Future Problem Solving state competition. Now they will try their hand at solving the air quality conundrum.
Ava Mello, Victoria DaSilva-Carvalheira, Arianna Slaughter and Liam Lafferty won first place at state in the Global Issues Team Writing Senior Division and are heading to the International Conference on June 5-9 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
The International Competition will bring together over 2,000 champion problem solvers from over 14 countries, including 40 competitors from four Flagler County schools. This is the third in a series on the Flagler students who were invited to Internationals.
The Global Issues team, coached by Melissa Castaneda, will have two hours to come up with a solution to a future scenario involving air quality, this year’s international topic, using the problem solvers’ six-step process.
“We just go through the process where we identify challenges and then find a main one,” Mello said. “And then we identify solutions and we rank (them). We write a whole action plan based on the solution that scored the highest.”
Their solution to the autonomous vehicle problem? Magnet brakes.
“The magnet brakes would be installed on every autonomous vehicle on the road,” DaSilva-Carvalheira said. “And then if a collision was inevitable, the magnets would be activated to repel the cars away from one another.”
The team members admit they don’t take the competition too seriously. They just enjoy the process.
“Honestly, before states we didn't do much research,” Slaughter said. “We did some the day before, but I think that kind of helps us because we can figure it out while we're doing it. You could research everything and still not have a good solution, because it's really about problem solving skills and working together as a team.”
Slaughter and Mello have been working together on FPS teams since they were fifth graders at Old Kings Elementary School.
“In the beginning, we started with Community Problem Solving. But in middle school we transitioned to writing Global Issues,” Mello said.
As they work to come up with their action plan, the four throw out ideas.
“We take them like, there’s no stupid ideas,” Mello said.
“Our group is just full of giggles,” DaSilva-Carvalheira said. “I think we're probably one of the louder groups when we're in competition. We just have to quiet each other down, because we don't want to get in trouble.”
Lafferty was absent from the interview for this article. DaSilva-Carvalheira said he is very creative when they bounce around ideas. He is the only one of the team who has been to the International Conference before.
“He's told us that he really wants to do the talent show and sing Buddy Holly,” DaSilva-Carvalheira said. “That's about all he's giving us, but he went for Scenario Writing last year, so he doesn't have much advice pertaining to Global Issues.”
Other activities the group is looking forward to, outside of the competition, are the dance and gift trading. Each state or country in the competition brings a gift to trade. The Florida teams, they said, are bringing plastic and rubber-ducky flamingos, sunglasses and pens and pencils.
“I’m looking forward to meeting people,” Mello said. “I've never really gone this far away for a competition. So, I think it's going to be a fun experience, and we're probably going to learn a lot, and hopefully it'll help us improve, because this won't be our last time going.”
