ROCKY RIVER, Ohio – A Kensington Intermediate School (KIS) team qualified
for the Destination Imagination (DI) state competition after claiming first
place at the Ohio Region 16 DI Tournament on Saturday (March 2) at Beachwood
High School.
Team Destination Imagination People (D.I.P.) placed
first in their challenges and will move on to the state competition on March 30
in East Liverpool, Ohio. Teams that earn top spots at the state level will have
the opportunity to compete at Globals in May in Kansas City, Missouri.
Members of D.I.P. include Alexi Kostakis, Jason
Fan, Abe Gould and Aiden Situ. They advanced to the state competition for the
Engineering Challenge, Monster Effects.
A Rocky River Middle School
(RRMS) team finished second for their solution to the Scientific Challenge,
Medical Mystery and posted the highest central challenge score. Team members
included Tom Malquest, Evan Baisch, Gigi Moeller and Luke Naymik.
A Kensington team, The
Moldy Potatoes from Planet Glob Glob, placed third in the Technical Challenge,
On Target and also had the highest score for payload drops. The team members were
Noah Madsen, Evan Zavagno, Chiara Kimmel, Cody Kimmel, Ryland Neeper and
Charlie Stephens.
The Techno Bunnies – a veteran team of RRMS and Rocky River High School students – placed third in the Improv Challenge, Heads Up. The Techno Bunnies consist of Dasara Beta, Anna Rouphail and Sofia Mural.
Third graders Evelyn
Kolonick and Gianna Coste made their Destination Imagination debut this year,
competing in the Fine Arts Challenge, Game On! The Med Tech Detectives
participated in the Scientific Challenge, Medical Mystery and worked well together
as a team as most team members were new to DI this year.
Team members included third
graders Avery Sand, Lucy Toghill, Alice Wanosik and fourth graders Cami
Carroll, Shannon Heavey and Mia Lange.
The Pirate Pear A Dice
team, consisting of fourth graders Henry Biddlecombe, Addie Dietrich, Max
Romito, and younger Goldwood siblings, Archer Biddlecombe and Evelyn Dietrich,
took part in the Monster Effects Engineering Challege. They scored second in
their division on the Instant Challenge portion of the challenge.
Gifted services teacher Mrs. Meredith Muccio is the advisor of Destination Imagination, which is the largest worldwide creative problem-solving program for young people in kindergarten through college. The program offers students at every level a unique opportunity to participate in challenging and motivating activities while developing lifelong skills such as teamwork and commitment. DI encourages children to build on their strengths and to discover skills they never knew they possessed, be they technical, theatrical, analytical, linguistic, or musical. The emphasis is on the “process,” the learning that takes place as the teams prepare their challenge solutions.