West Chicago, Illinois: June 5, 2008 - A sixth grade student team from West Chicago Elementary School District 33's Pioneer School placed 3rd in the 2008 International Competition for Future Problem Solving this past weekend at Michigan State University. Wendy Garcia, Ana Ibarra, Carlos Lara, Alex Leal, Ariana Vigil, and Claudia Villalba competed against teams from all over the world including Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, to name a few. In their division, out of 20 teams, the Pioneer team placed 3rd. This is the first team from Illinois to place at the International level in the grades 4-6 division in the 28 years that Illinois has been participating.
The students have been working all year on their Community Problem-Solving project; raising funds and volunteers to update their school playground to make it more appealing and safer for younger students. The actual playground renovation work took place on April 26th.
During competition this past weekend, the student team was required to create a tri-fold visual display of their community project. The students chose to give all information in both Spanish and English which drew a tremendous amount of interest and attention, and the competition judges noted this as well. Visitors to their presentation board were impressed with the quality of their written Spanish and their written English.
Additionally, the students addressed a field house audience of over 500. They spoke with confidence first in Spanish and then in English and followed this introduction with the movie they created of their project, describing it step by step.
Finally, the students participated in a two hour long fair of 52 community projects and explained their project and its impact on Pioneer School and the community with confidence and enthusiasm. This is the 5th team that has qualified for International Competition in District 33; all were finalists and were representing the State of Illinois in competition. The Pioneer School team is the first to place in the top three in International competition, and the first to bring home a trophy in the 4-6th grade division in Illinois history. |
