Students head to state finals in Destination Imagination

ThisWeek Reynoldsburg 04/05/2012

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/reynoldsburg/news/2012/04/03/students-head-to-state-finals-in-destination-imagination.html

Reynoldsburg students are destined for the state finals after emerging victorious at this year’s Destination ImagiNation regional competition.

Gateway Gifted Academy Destination Imagination adviser and teacher Todd Stanley said he was very excited to have two of his nine teams chosen to continue on to the state competition.

“We had 150 teams competing in our region, which is the largest region in Ohio,” Stanley said. “Most regions only send the top-finishing team on to the state competition but because of how large Region 4 (the central Ohio region) is, we are sending the top two.”

The two teams moving on to state competition from the junior high school will be Team Gray: Ashlyn Delaney, Megan Barnes, Nate Fleeger, Jeff Covington, Katie Sanzone and Cammi McDevitt; and Team Yellow: Doug Whitman, Cain Warner, Erin Costello, Reya Weibel, Darius Montero and David Waite.

“The competition is divided into a central challenge and an insta-challenge. The central challenge is worth two-thirds of the team’s score and is open to the public to watch,” Stanley said. “However, the students aren’t allowed to talk about the insta-challenge with anyone, even their parents, during the competition, because other teams will do the same challenge and they don’t want to give anyone an unfair advantage.”

According to Stanley, the central challenge is a competition where students create improvisational skits that are performed for the judges and audience.

“Teams of students use improv to create skits based on particular elements given to them. This year they had to show up with a newspaper article and then they were given another newspaper article on the spot,” Stanley said. “At that point, they had four minutes to write a five-minute long skit that connects the two stories somehow. They’re also given a ‘One-Minute Glitch,’ an additional story element they have to work into their skit just one minute before they perform the skit.”

The insta-challenge tests the team’s physical problem-solving skills, according to Stanley, and they don’t know what that challenge will be until they are secluded in a room and given the challenge.

“The kids go into a room just as a team and they are given a hands-on project to show their creativity,” Stanley said. “An example is one time they were given a water bottle, a piece of paper and 20 nails. They had to figure out how to balance as many nails on the bottle of water as possible.”

The state competition will start at 9 a.m. April 21, at Mount Vernon High School, 300 Martinsburg Road, Mount Vernon, Ohio, and is free and open to the public. Fourteen regions will be represented at the competition.

Stanley said that he is particularly fond of this program because of how it allows students to tap into their creativity. This is his eighth year advising teams; Abbigail Mansfield, another teacher also advises the teams.

“In school a lot of time, we’re very academic and expect kids to learn to somewhat rigidly know this and display that, so this allows the students a chance to be very creative and I like giving them that opportunity,” he said.

Parents and students interested in the program should contact Stanley at tstanley@reyn.org.