Future Problem Solvers, Danville, IL – Project Ignition

Future Problem Solvers – From Left – Kaleb Medina, Micah Cherry, Makayla Smith, and DJ Barnette

Recently, Tridan International sponsored local kids from Danville High School in the Future Problem Solvers international competition.

Consequently, we are proud to announce that they brought home third place for their Project Ignition: Be the Key to Road Safety. The following are highlights from the original article written by Carol Roehm and published in the Commercial-News of Danville, IL.

The International Future Problem Solvers competition was held June 3 – 9 at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. For this competition, 75 teams from all over the globe participated. The teams are broken into three age divisions –  junior, middle, and senior and each American team is paired with an international team. The DHS Future Problem Solvers were paired with a team from Turkey.

Project Ignition: Be the Key to Road Safety was started in the 2017-2018 school year and developed more over a second year. To qualify for the international competition, the DHS team first won the 2019 Illinois State Championship in the community problem-solving category. In fact, each year Danville High School has groups of up to 15 kids that compete in the competition.

Key To Road Safety

Their project involved strategies for safe driving on city streets, rural roads, and also on interstates. The tragic loss of fellow students in car accidents inspired the idea for this project.  For their research, they learned about the “fatal four” unsafe driving habits. Those include not wearing your seat belt, using electronics, speeding, and also, driving impaired. The main component of the project is making brightly colored signs to remind motorists to drive safely.

These signs will be installed in five different places across Danville and have; Be Smart, Be Safe, and Be Seen displayed on one sign with Drive Safe, Arrive Safe on another. Hopefully, these signs will remind drivers to be aware of their surroundings and practice safe driving. Furthermore, if proven successful, our participants hope these signs will remain in place.  To print or save download the full article here.

The DHS Future Problem Solvers are: DJ Barnette, Jolene Blodgett, Layla Castro, Micah Cherry, Alexis Flores, Amelia Ingold, Alana Kleiner, Kaleb Medina, Brooke Parker, Shivangi Patel, Makayla Smith and Quemarii Williams. Finally, we would like to congratulate all the participants, teachers and mentors!

Proudly sponsored by Tridan International 130 North Jackson Street, Danville IL 61832