Imagination unleashed Imagination unleashed (May 21, 2004)

School teams head for global finals
by Teresa C. Brown

Eight minutes. That is all the time allowed teams comprised of 11 students to show off their creativity, innovation and ability to solve problems as a group. But that was enough time for two teams - from Hearst Elementary and Pleasanton Middle School - to earn their way to Destination ImagiNation global competitions being held May 26-29 in Tennessee.

The teams must demonstrate their ability to work together for creative problem solving, said the teams' manager Elizabeth Flores. "They work on brainstorming to work on ideas quickly," she said, adding that the process teaches the students performance as well as presentation skills.

The Hearst team, called the Sea Monkeys, includes Sachin Dhar, Preston Hedrick, Brooke Irish, Hunter Laine, Kelly Villanueva and Patricia Walchessen, all in the fourth grade.

The Pleasanton Middle team, known as Carpe Diem, is made up of seventh-graders Sargun Dhillon and James Hedrick and sixth-graders Brian Louie, Nick Siamas and Adam Siegel. Both Sargun and James are competing at the global finals for their fourth consecutive year.

Destination ImagiNation is one of the largest problem-solving educational programs, encouraging innovation and originality, with 47 states and 15 countries participating in its competitions.

Flores got involved six years ago after attending an informational meeting about the program. "It sounded like an interesting program. I tried it out and after doing it, I saw it as a platform of an enrichment kids are not getting in school," she said. "In this program, kids are rewarded for doing more."

The Pleasanton teams earned the right to compete head to head for global honors after winning the state tournament in their respective categories. This is the first year Pleasanton will be represented by two teams at the global level held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

The students will compete in an instant challenge and a team challenge in age-appropriate competitions. All of the challenges require an element of research and improvisation while focusing on a technical or mechanical design, a structural design, improvisational or theatrical, literary or fine arts component.

The instant challenge is, as the name implies, presented to the students on the spot, Flores explained. "They go into a room with several judges and are given a challenge and they have a few minutes to solve it." The teams prepare in advance for the second challenge.

Part of the challenge includes presenting solutions in a theatrical manner. "They have eight minutes to perform, " Flores said, adding that the presentation includes the use of props, background sets and scripts while putting a story together.

The Sea Monkeys team chose to compete with a structure challenge. "They had to build a structure from wood and glue that weighs no more than 15 grams," Flores said, explaining that the weight is the equivalent to that of a quarter and two dimes.

The structure had to be 7-1/2 inches tall and have a 4-inch opening, and it will be scored on the amount of weight it can hold, she said. The students built their structure from balsa wood, and during a recent test, they discovered it held 750 pounds, Flores said.

The challenge will be presented to the judges in the form of an underwater skit. The students built a 16-foot paint-chip mosaic background set to help complete the underwater scene.

The middle school team, Carpe Diem, developed a presentation around its technical challenge to create a timing device that performs specific operations, such as opening a door at certain intervals, Flores said.

The students created a measuring-time story line surrounding the device. In the story, when the students' device opens a door, the action allows them to step back in time to Rome, and eventually, in their story, they return back to present day.

The innovative problem-solving the students learn through the competition has real-life applications, Flores said. "Think of 'Apollo 13,'" she explained. The astronauts were stranded in space and it took creative thinking to help save their lives. "There's very real applications to taking ordinary objects and doing unusual things with them."

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