Four Tauranga secondary students are set to take on the world when they represent New Zealand at the international problem solving conference.

The group train once a week, don't break a sweat and don't leave the classroom. But the pressure is on and they're ramping it up to two training sessions a week soon.

The problems solving team are Sam Kang, left, Lily Straker, Ben Kang and Alex Trask.

'We research and build on the skills we need,” says Mount Maunganui College Year-10 student Lily Straker.

It's the Tauranga Boys' and Mount colleges' Future Problem Solving team – Alex Trask, Lily Straker, and brothers Sam and Ben Kang. And they're solving the woes of the world in between the normal demands of a school day.

'Future problem solving opens my eyes to the issues of the world that I didn't appreciate the importance or significance of,” says Lily.

She and her team competed against more than 400 teams and came first in the middle division of the national Global Issues problem solving section national finals.

They won the right to represent New Zealand at the international conference at the Michigan State University in early June.

At the moment the team's training by reviewing its national's performance and analysing how it could have done things differently and better.

'We will find out the subject for Michigan next week,” says Lily. 'Then we will brainstorm the issue before individually preparing a paper to be included in a collective booklet.”

Last year the problems were the impact of social media, processed foods, propaganda and enhancing human potential.

Lily says it's not scary. 'But I will be interested to find out our issues.”

The Future Problem Solving Programme is widely regarded as one of the best ways of extending gifted students. They learns skills of creative, critical and ethical thinking.

'Research shows more than 80 per cent of Future Problem Solving students go onto higher level tertiary education in disciplines such as medicine, law and scientific research,” says Future Problem Solving NZ national director Robyn Boswell.

Robyn says the programme arms students with skills which are 'far more powerful than the packages of knowledge which may become redundant in our rapidly changing world”.

Students like Lily develop a positive view of the future, learn to work in teams and grapple with the world's most significant issues.

The Tauranga Boys' College and Mount College joint future problem solving team has an immediate domestic problem to resolve – the $32,000 fundraising goal to get them to Michigan. If you can help, email [email protected]