Whittier Team Places 4th at Global Destination Imagination Finals

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Two teams of students from represented District 58 at the recent Destination Imagination Global Finals Tournament May 23-26 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Destination Imagination is a curriculum enrichment educational program in which students work together for several months to solve open-ended challenges and present their solution at tournaments.

Team Midnight Moon, made up of fifth-graders Aleena Albert, Daniel Atwater, Bobby Barnett, Vincent Bobbitt, Lucie Boyd, Liam Johnson and Blair Steele, took fourth place out of 61 teams from around the world in the middle school improvisational challenge at the Global Finals. They earned the right to advance to the Global Finals by taking first place honors in the state tournament.

In their improvisational challenge, Midnight Moon performed a five-minute skit connecting two unrelated news stories with a cause and effect relationship. They were required to incorporate human scenery with at least two team members, and add in a “one-minute glitch.”

In competing with teams from around the world, the students from Midnight Moon were fortunate to be a host “buddy team”’ to an elementary-aged team from China.

“It was exciting to meet people from other countries and learn a little bit about their culture and traditions,” said Liam Johnson. “The boys on our buddy team were really nice.” Midnight Moon’s buddy team, Youngster Fantasy, competed in the fine arts category and finished sixth.

Team Da Chargers, made up of fourth grade boys from Whittier School, competed in the technical, structural engineering category at the Global Finals. Their challenge necessitated the building of equipment to assemble products and deliver materials under a strict time requirement. Da Chargers finished 36th out of 64 teams.

Whittier’s Destination ImagiNation’s teams received a great deal of community support in their bid to attend the Global Finals. Destination ImagiNation at Whittier is a PTA-sponsored club. In addition, Angelo’s Pizza gave a generous donation to the teams; Another Round and Cellar Door partnered with the students for fundraisers; and the Village of Downers Grove and Community Bank of Downers Grove donated gift items for the buddy team.

More information about the Global Finals is available on the Destination Imagination web site, http://www.globalfinals.org or http://idodi.org/.