Wiamea team shines at creative thinking

IDENTITY theft, medical technology, genetic modification and education disparity are some of the topics a group of Sandy Bay primary school students have been grappling with this year.

Waimea Heights Primary School Year 5 student Addie Hawkes and Year 6 students Taj Parsons, Thomas Neal and Aidan Taylor have returned from the Future Problem Solving Program competition national finals in Sydney where they placed second.

The program teaches a sixstep problem-solving process to be applied to a hypothetical future scenario.

“[Students] are given a scene written 30 years into the future but based on a topic that’s of interest now,” Waimea Heights assistant principal Philippa Clymo said.

“It tests their logical thinking, it tests their creative, imaginative thinking.”

Ms Clymo said there were 14 primary schools at the finals in the Waimea Heights students’ age group and the teams had two hours to come up with solutions to a problem of cultural identity theft.

The Waimea Heights team has also found solutions to futuristic problems of medical technology, genetic modification and education disparity in the lead-up to the finals, held last weekend.

“The world is changing so fast, we don’t know what these kids are going to have to face,” Ms Clymo said.

“[Learning] what to do when you don’t know what to do — that’s the best thing we can give them for this very uncertain future.”