(Untitled)

[hortonhearsawho]

The great titaniawaking gave me this idea, because I don't think much sometimes. I'm attempting to explain FPS to the common, unenlightened folk who will be reading my college applications. I started writing out all the awards I've won (ohhh would my little "Additional Information" box be sparse with this thing...) and realized it would mean absolutely nothing

Comments

[elouiza]

I think topics across the board have been pretty lame these past few years and it bothers me that our fuzzys are only set like 20 years in the future.I just did a practice problem for the year 2025. 20 years is not that far away. How much could really change in 20 years, socially, technologically etc.

Do you participate in team, scenario and CMPS? If so I commend you, that's an awful lot of work to take on.

I think your summary of the program is pretty concise, to the point. I always have trouble explaining it too.

[hortonhearsawho]

The topics have been driving me insane and that state bowl fuzzy last year was just crap. Ummm... why are we not just keeping the damn fish in a tank, people?

I have done all three at various points; I've done team consistently since 6th, CmPS in 6th, 7th, 8th, and 11th, and I've written two scenarios. It was part of the gifted program in middle school, so we had one day a week officially built in to do FPS-type things as well as other random stuff. And then we used PACE as an excuse to get out of class as much as we possibly could the rest of the week, so there was a lot of time. In high school, there are just four of us who have continued team competition, and we just practice once or twice a year on our own time. The CmPS project we did last year was an idea a group of us have had in the works since freshman year, but it was still much more work with no class time set aside

[icklefickle]

That fuzzy WAS horrible. I believe that is the one fuzzy we can talk about because the Aussies/New Zealanders get a different one for that problem (correct me if I'm wrong). But what the hell is Solarnis? We know what's in solar panels and there's no Solarnis. And there's enough to pump it through pipes? And is it more or less dense than water? Polar or not? Useful information?

[kiwiness_miri]

Yeah, I think we got a different Depletion one, because ours had quite a bit to do with Maori and cultural rights and so forth... I think our order was swapped around though, with Depletion being out qualifying booklet and Agriculture being our Nationals topic(in two weeks!).

[icklefickle]

Well I think climate change could make a very good scenario, as could healthcare and lack of access to it. If you're interested, FPSP has a nice publication that you can download or have sent to you free (that version is all colorful and nice). Actually, I"m having a hard time finding it one the site, but I know it exists. Just e-mail and tell them you're interested in a copy of "Opening Doors to the Future" and they should be able to help. http://www.fpsp.org/Standards.pdf mgiht help too

[hortonhearsawho]

My coach always passes out the research packets, and I haven't gotten those yet so I am whining somewhat prematurely. The topics aren't so bad as I think, probably, but making them original is difficult. I haven't gotten past stereotypes, yet.

Thank you very much for the suggestions, you're making a lot of sense. I haven't done anything team-related at IC since the sixth grade, and even then I just sort of randomly went along to be in the skit. I was accompanying a friend who had won individuals and didn't want to be friendless the whole time. I've gone since, but it's always been for CmPS. I'm very familiar with those rules.

[icklefickle]

Anytime you want to try and explain CmPS to me, it'd be nice. I tried talking to someone about it at the fair, but she was basically just like, "it's complicated." She told me what you have to do, but not really how it's judged... I did overhear a very interesting conversation between an evaluator and a coach though.

[hortonhearsawho]

You know, it's a funny thing. I don't really know how it's judged. I mean, I know, but it's sort of a mystery because it's all so relative. It's not "complicated," though. What's complicated is getting it all right so you get a lot of points. There's a definite formula, like in FPS, and it sometimes seems that it's not so much your project as it is how well you've written it up. (Not entirely true, though, because if your project is really dumb you've got no chance because chances are you didn't have any sort of impact of any import

[lowfatsourcreme]

reading this late at nightish, it looks good. it IS incredibly hard to summarize FPS, and I think you've done it quite nicely in a concise format (for comparison, icklefickle took six pages to summarize it, or so I hear, so you definitely win some sort of prize).

I agree with scenarios. Freedom of Speech could be good but you know that EVERYONE will do that. When I first heard Redistribution of Wealth, I had this whole Robin Hood idea but then quickly realized that wasn't exactly what they meant. . . Climate change, healthcare could be OK - and some junior will place internationally with some crappy one about futuristic nutrition. (no insult meant towards juniors, of course. I'm just still slightly irked that a scenario from the point of view of an octopus beat mine. And that was middle anyway.)

[icklefickle]

I WAS NOT SUMMARIZING IT! The six pages was a complete explaination of the details of all steps and evaluation. I CAN explain it in less, but I was choosing not to.

Wait, the octopus was middle? I thought that was a junior one?

[titaniawaking]

We spent like twenty minutes talking/rambling about the process for our school board, so I bet that would translate to 5+ pages. It's not hard to do--there's so much involved.

[lowfatsourcreme]

no, that was from our wonderful iowan friend...