An amazing team of students from Athey Creek Middle earned FIRST place at the Destination Imagination Global Finals Competition, on May 22-27, 2017, in Knoxville, TN. The 8th grade team was among the 8,000 students representing more than 1,400 teams that advanced to participate in Global Finals 2017. The team, Delaney Callaghan, Isaac Dodd, Ellen Dierckes, Ty Park, Quinn Stober, and Kadyn Eves, used creative problem solving to complete technical and theatrical solutions which they designed and built over the course of the year. They also competed in Instant Challenge in which they used teamwork to overcome obstacles.
Destination Imagination prepares students for their future careers by teaching them the creative process, project management, teamwork, and critical thinking skills. This year, the students won 5th place in Show and Tech, a Technical Challenge, in which they had to create a stage that moved a team member as well as perform an 8 minute student-written and directed play about the team member movement. They also won 1st place in Vanished, a Fine Arts Challenge, in which they had to use theater effects to create a colorful character and make something disappear.
To solve these challenges, the team designed and built a two-story drivable mansion powered by scooter motors. Their disappearing act consisted of an electromagnetic “will” that disappeared at the flick of a switch. The stage was wired carefully with an intricate lighting system that made green disappear from the set. It also had an electric-motor powered puppet theater, which rose from the living room hearth like an automatic TV. The colorful, rainbow clue characters had hand-sewn costumes which they designed themselves with special details made out of recycled items such as spoons, playing cards, and sheets. Their presentation was about characters who arrived at the mansion for the reading of a will, and much to their surprise, the will and everything green in the mansion, including their green feelings and energy disappeared! But don’t worry, they successfully restored the color green back to the mansion just in time. The team was thrilled to make the top five in both challenges.
