Four Mount Maunganui Intermediate students have returned from an international problem-solving competition in the United States with two top-four placings.
Hayley Thomas, 13, Anna Petersen, 12, Jonathan Tomlinson, 12, and Louis Donovan, 13, returned today from the Team Global Issues Problem Solving competition held at Iowa State University.
The team finished third overall in the junior division, in which there were 74 teams from across the USA and around the world.
The team were also placed fourth for the dramatic presentation of the action plan they wrote as part of the Global Issues Problem Solving.
For the competition, groups got two hours to complete a booklet with a scenario about a issue that people may face in the future and then give a dramatic presentation.
The Future Problem Solving programme, founded in 1974 by Dr Paul Torrance of the US, was designed to stimulate critical and creative thinking skills and to encourage students to develop a vision for the future.
This year's theme was "space", but the team was not given the actual scenario until the exam began.
The students then had to come up with 16 challenges for the scenario and an underlying problem, then come up with 16 solutions. This was then turned into an action plan.
The intermediate team went up against teams from 68 countries, including a team from Christchurch who came home with a first place.