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Two West Jefferson Hills School District teams garnered first place at the recent Pennsylvania Future Problem Solving State Bowl in Camp Hill, Pa. This year’s challenge was to solve problems under the theme, “Throw Away Society.”   The district had eight teams qualify for the competition in the three divisions. In the Junior division (grades 4-6), Pleasant Hills Middle School took home first, second, and third place. The first-place team was Ava Flood, Lauren Griesheimer, Claire Hogan and Maddy Oates. 

 In the Senior division (grades 10-12), Thomas Jefferson High School’s squad of Theo Doerfler, Celina McElhinny, Caraline Sommer and Joyce Xu, earned first place.  As the top teams in their divisions, the PHMS and TJ teams earned an invitation to the FPS International Competition, June 7-11 at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where they will compete with students from more than 14 countries.

The second-place team from Pleasant Hills Middle School was Eli Doerfler, Austin Hinkle, Sullivan Korhnak and Ollie Whitsel and the third place team was Cole Dailey, Tyler Hills, Alex Lauver and Steven Wills.

In the Middle division (grades 7-9), Thomas Jefferson’s team of ninth grade students earned third place:  Abby Kauffman, Aneri Patel, Samantha Strope and Alivia Zulka.

The participating students had to consider the challenges with consumers throwing away products after minimal or even a single use. They developed solutions to increase sustainability, product life-cycles, and product materials to support a circular economy.

Andrew Capretto, the gifted teacher at PHMS, is the advisor for WJHSD’s Future Problem Solving Bowl teams.

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