North/Apollo Problem Solvers Win International Contest

The North Junior High and Apollo High School Community Problem Solving team took first place in their division at the International Future Problem Solving Competition in June.

Students Fatuma Hassan (freshman at Apollo), Nathan Nichelson (eighth grader at North) and Quynn Meister worked for over two years on their presentation titled "Don't Juul, It's Not Cuul!," which is an anti-vaping campaign.

Since 2016, the number of Minnesota teens vaping has skyrocketed - a 95% increase in 8th graders alone! How might we, the Eagle CmPS team, impress upon teenagers the harsh realities of vaping products, in order to reduce the number of teens vaping in Minnesota in 2020 and beyond? Raising taxes on all vape-related products, banning flavors and certain shapes of vape pens, and requiring students to learn what vaping does to you will help achieve that. Our website and social media efforts offer facts and up-to-date information about the realities and risks of vaping in visual and written form.

A project submitted by Turkish students titled "Causes and Consequences of Climate Change" finish in second place, while a group of Florida students "OCEAN" project finished third.

“The reason … we came up with this project and website is that it’s an issue that we can most relate to,” Fatuma Hassan said on the District 742 website. “A lot of people our age are the ones that are vaping and getting addicted, so we wanted to spread more awareness about it.”

In addition to the win, the group also worked with the state legislature to raise taxes on vaping products and to change the packaging and labeling of vaping products.

See more about the project HERE.