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Three teams from two area school corporations have made it to the Destination Imagination global finals.
Those teams are from Washington and Triton Elementary Schools and Triton High School.
Destination Imagination is the new name for the Odyssey of the Mind program. Destination Imagination is an international program for young people from kindergarten to college age that teaches life skills and expands imaginations through team-based creative problem-solving. DI emphasizes creativity, teamwork, research skills, presentation skills and the art of improvisation.
The global finals will be held at Iowa State University, May 24-27.
Washington's team placed first at the state tournament in Noblesville on April 8. They competed in the problem "If Music Be the Food of Life ... Play On!"
The team's challenge was to create a musical performance that told a story. The performance could not use any written or spoken language. The team's performance included a team-created musical instrument and a prop that needed to use mechanics to change appearance.
"Basically," said Travis Kempton, Washington Elementary School, "we made up a play with no verbal communication." Music was the only way they could communicate, he said.
For the team-created musical instrument, Washington Elementary student Kyle Messmore said, "We had to create one musical instrument that was made by us. It was a regular shoe box. It had a light switch, a DC motor, bells, batteries. The fork was glued to the DC motor. It spun around and hit the different items when it spun around."
Mallory Deardorff, Washington Elementary, said, "In our skit, we kind of showed teamwork and that two halves make a whole."
Courtney Ogle, Washington Elementary, said while they did receive second place at regionals for their skit, the team didn't do as well in the instant challenges. But, for state, she said, "We practiced on the instant challenge and we changed our play a little for state."
Now preparing for global competition, Deardorff said, they weren't overly concerned about the upcoming international competition. "We just want to have fun. We don't care if we win or lose."
And regardless of what happens at the international competition, the students said they learned a lot.
"Teamwork pays off," said Washington student Alex VanDuyne. "We also learned about hydraulics and pneumatics."
Blaine Allen, Washington Elementary, said, "I learned an awful lot about music. You have to listen to everyone's opinion and not all talk at once."
"It was fun!" Andrew Morris, Washington Elementary, said, summing up the experience.
The Washington Elementary team also received two special awards. The DaVinci Award recognized the team for having a creative idea that really "awed" the judges. The team also received a spirit award for helping another team. The other team's keyboard broke right before their performance and the Washington Elementary team loaned the other team their keyboard.
The Triton High School team also competed in the "If Music Be the Food of Life ... Play On!" competition, only for high school students.
"It was really exciting," said freshman Kylie Edmonds. She said they were the last team to perform in the competition at state.
Tim Speicher said they received the Renaissance Award for creativity. "We used an ancient Greek design," he said.
"Tim wrote all of the music," said Edmonds. "We had to create a musical instrument."
Ryan Schori said they had only six minutes to perform the skit and had a $100 expense limit. They also had to meet certain criteria set ahead of time.
Speicher said for international competition, "we're going to further refine our technical element." He said the competition is "fierce," and Edmonds said, "It is really hard to win at world."
Regardless of what happens at world competition, Speicher said, "Getting there is a great goal to achieve.
"I don't see it as competition," he said. "It's kind of like one big party with everyone there."
Schori said that besides having fun, the biggest lesson was "responsibility because we each were given a job and had to complete it in a certain amount of time."
The seven-member Triton Elementary team competed in the "Instant Pudding Improve" competition.
Cole Eiser said in their competition, they had 12 different people they had to study and 12 different time periods. When they got to competition, they had to draw out of a bag the name of a real person, a time period, the name of a fictional person and a conflict. And they had to use a household product.
At state competition, their person was Helen Keller, their fictional person was the Big Bad Wolf and the time period was Roswell, New Mexico, 1947.
"We got first place in our problem and second place in instant (at state)," said Audrey Speicher.
The team also received a DaVinci award for creativity in their instant challenge.
