Triton Teams Headed To Global FinalsBOURBON - After winning awards at regional and state competition, two Destination Imagination teams from Triton Junior-Senior High School are heading to Global Finals.
Members on the theatrical challenge team include seniors Adam Creighbaum and Dylan Senff; juniors Jacob Stouder, Tom Eiser and Emmanuel Bravo; and sophomores Jake Bessinger and Ethan Yazel. Their team name is Damé Cinco.
On the structural challenge team are Creighbaum, Senff, senior Patrick Engels, Stouder, Tom Eiser, Bessinger and Yazel. Their team name is Gib Mir Fünf.
Lisa Eiser is the teams' sponsor.
Creighbaum said Destination Imagination is a creative problem solving competition. "In a nutshell, you're given a challenge and have to solve it in a short skit," he said.There are five different challenges a team can choose from, including the theatrical and structural challenges. Each challenge has certain requirements and a budget limit. Judges give scores to each team based on meeting those requirements and creativity in the problem solving.
Senff said the budget for the theatrical challenge was $125, but only $50 for the structural challenge. If a team goes over the budget, they are disqualified.
"We've never had a problem with it," said Senff.
Part of the theatrical challenge, Tom Eiser said, is that they had to build a puppet. He and Bessinger operate the puppet from inside, standing side by side. It's a two-headed tree ent named Trent.
In the theatrical eight-minute skit, Eiser said the story has to include a twist. The twist for this year was that the story had to flip the point of view.
In the structural challenge, said Stouder, they had to do a skit based on a story they found in a foreign country's newspaper. They also have to include a prop incorporating newspapers. In the skit, Stouder wears a lab goat and goggles made entirely of newspapers woven together. All the newspapers are folded and bound together, he said.
Also during their skit, Stouder said they had to test the integrity of a structure made from newspapers.
Creighbaum said the structure does not have to be a part of the skit. It is required the structure be 7-1/2 to 9 inches tall and weigh less than 75 grams. Weight is applied to the top of the structure to crush it. Afterward, the judges evaluate it by dividing the weight held by the structure's weight. It counts for 63 percent of the score, with the rest of the score coming from the skit.
"The biggest reason for the newspapers this year was because of the challenge. We were thinking creatively with a resource we could use for both challenges," said Senff. One of the themes for the teams this year, he said, was reduce, reuse and recycle.
Another thing the group had to build, Stouder said, was a box of recycled materials to hold all their materials. Everything in the box also is recycled materials. The box they built is made entirely of VHS tapes, PVC pipe and hot glue. Stouder said the measurements of the box are 24 inches long, 22 inches wide by 34 inches high, with wheels.
"I came here every third hour and worked on it for an hour straight for weeks," Stouder said.
Senff said their current project for the challenge is to make a seal. The newspaper article they used was about creating a friend for older people, and how a company made a robotic seal. Tom Eiser said the article was a review of the seal robot, and they came up with an idea of why a seal was chosen instead of something like a dog for their skit.
Music was incorporated into the structural challenge, said Stouder. The lyrics and guitar playing are all original by Tom Eiser and Engels.
Engels said he and Tom Eiser play as an acoustic duo together, so they decided to incorporate that into the DI challenge. A song discusses a scientist's struggle about what to create. While they only used that song for the state finals, Engels said Tom Eiser wrote two new songs for Global Finals.
In regional competitions, the structural challenge team got first while the theatrical challenge team placed second, Creighbaum said. They repeated those results at state competition April 17. First- and second-place teams move on to the next level of competition.
Additionally, Lisa Eiser said, the structural team was presented with a "Spirit of Discovery and Imagination" Award at regionals for mentoring a team from West Noble and their originality in their script, props and song.
At the state level, the same team then won another "Spirit" Award for their high energy, their originality and that they "could easily convince anyone to be a DI member," said Lisa Eiser.
The theatrical challenge team won a Renaissance Award at state for the structure of their set piece.
Creighbaum designed the set piece. It folds down for transportation. Unfolded, it stands more than six feet tall. It locks into place by homemade spring loads.
"I drew it on a piece of paper and it came to be," Creighbaum said.
"Everything in this structure challenge basically came from the top of our heads," said Stouder.
Global Finals are May 26-29 in Knoxville, Tenn., with the Triton team leaving May 24. Global Finals features teams from all across the United States and the rest of the world.
"It's the best of the best," Lisa Eiser said.
For more information on DI or Global Finals, visit online at globalfinals.org
