
DATE: Saturday, June 14, 1997               TAG: 9706140324

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   87 lines

GREEN RUN SENIORS FIX GRADUATION DILEMMA PROBLEM SOLVING CHAMPIONS FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET TO CEREMONIES ON TIME.

The name of the game is problem solving, but for five Green Run High School seniors it's now more than an academic exercise.

Kisha Preston, Lisa Putallaz, Daniela Ridley and Antonio Robinson took top place last month among the teams in the senior division of Virginia's 1997 Future Problem Solving State Championship Bowl. Melissa Bender also took top individual honors in the state for scenario writing.

Bringing home the trophy, though, posed a real-life problem.

The international competition, in which they will represent the state, began Friday and is scheduled through Sunday in Ann Arbor, Mich. Trouble is, their high school graduation is at 1 p.m. Sunday.

And to get affordable air fares, the group has to stay in Ann Arbor over Saturday night.

These teens, however, have concocted a solution.

They'll skip the final day of the competition without affecting their score, and if all goes well with connecting flights, land at Norfolk International Airport an hour before they line up in caps and gowns at the Virginia Beach Pavilion.

``We get back here at 10:54 Sunday morning,'' coach Sue Puckett said, ``and they have to be at (the) Pavilion to line up at noon. We've told their parents to meet them at the airport with caps and gowns ready to go.''

At one time, the team considered not going to the competition. ``We said yes, we're going to win the state,'' said Preston, ``and we're not going to Ann Arbor.''

But the lure of competing against the best of the 250,000 students who participate in Future Problem Solving throughout the United States and in several other countries was too much.

For Robinson, who will enter Yale this fall to prepare for a career in medicine, the academic challenge was a different way of competing. ``When I got into this in 10th grade, it was a new thing,'' he said. ``I had never experienced anything like it.''

During most of their last three years, Robinson and the other team members have spent at least part of each week learning how to identify, brainstorm, analyze and research complex scientific and social problems of the future; figure out and evaluate solutions to those problems; and describe the best solution in writing and orally.

Their work involves the kind of mental gymnastics that would have made Socrates proud. In winning the state title they dove into the problems surrounding a mind-boggling approach to increasing students' competitive edge in the year 2027. The scenario dealt with mall outlets where competitive skills, both physical and mental, would be taught with the aid of corporate contributions, coaches, high-tech electronics and release time from school.

The team was required to pinpoint an underlying problem and develop a solution.

The problem, they decided, would be the amount of stress that such a competitive atmosphere would generate among those eager 21st century students. Their solution was a mandatory recess in which the kids would relax in the friendly atmosphere of a virtual-reality tropical paradise.

Although they don't know the scenario they'll be given at the international competition, they do know it's about increasing life span.

The team competition ends Saturday night, but the winners are not announced until Monday.

Fortunately for the Green Run team, they did not produce the only state winners from Virginia Beach. Sarah Margulies, a Kempsville High School sophomore, took first place in the senior division individual competition and eighth-grader Jacob Hicks of Kemps Landing Magnet School won the intermediate division individual competition. They and coach Carolyn Stamm also will be in Ann Arbor this weekend.

Since Margulies, Hicks and Stamm aren't involved with graduations, they'll be able to stay through the awards ceremony and are on standby as substitute acceptors. ``If (Green Run) wins the trophy, we'll be there to pick it up for them,'' Stamm said. MEMO: Two teams from Franklin City Public Schools will also represent

Virginia at the international finals. Four fourth- through sixth-graders

from S.P. Morton Middle School took first place in the state Junior

Division Team finals. A team of 14 seventh- through ninth-graders from

Morton and Franklin High School took first place in the Intermediate

Community Problem Solving Division. The students, along with coaches

Patti Rabil and Beverly Rabil, left Franklin by bus Wednesday evening. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Area winners in Virginia's 1997 Future Problem Solving State

Championship Bowl are competing this weekend at the international

level. Seated, from left to right, are Sarah Margulies, Jacob Hicks

and Melissa Bender. Standing, from left to right, are Kisha Preston,

Antonio Robinson, Lisa Putallaz and Daniela Ridley.