The Future Problem Solving Program is a year-long program in which teams of students use the six-step creative problem solving process to solve complex scientific and social problems set in the future.

Students involved in the Future Problem Solving process learn how to think critically, analytically, and creatively. The development of thinking skills is divergent from traditional education which places emphasis on providing information. While an important part of education, information is constantly changing and will be obsolete once students graduate. Hence, the concentration on thinking skills prepares today's students to successfully live in tomorrow's world.

In 1985, the Wyoming Future Problem Solving Program (WYFPSP) was established as an accredited affiliate of the International Future Problem Solving Program.

The goals of WYFPSP are to assist and motivate students to develop:

• creative and analytical thinking abilities
• research skills
• skills of self-direction
• awareness and interest in the future
• oral and written communication skills
• teamwork skills
• the ability to contend with ambiguity

Future Problem Solving gives teachers an outstanding classroom activity which addresses many of the goals of outcome-based education and helps students develop skills in a variety of areas which crosscut several educational disciplines.

The FPS program takes students beyond memorization and challenges them to apply the information they have learned to some of the most complex issues facing society. This year's topics include:

• Entertainment
• Terrorism/Security
• Agriculture of the 21st Century
• Depletion of Oceanic Species
• Business Crime

The FPS program is both competition and a curriculum. Teachers/coaches work with teams of students (grades K-12) throughout the school year.

In addition to the regular competition, two other FPS components are available:

• The Community Problem Solving (CmPS) Component offers teams of students the opportunity to use their problem solving skills on real-life problems in the students' community.
• In the Scenario Writing Component a student develops a 1500-word short story set at least twenty years in the future based on one of the year's topics.

Throughout the school year, student work is submitted to the Wyoming FPSP State Office for review and evaluation by trained individuals who provide constructive feedback to the students and coaches.