HES team takes first in regional competition BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
MONTEREY - "It was extremely stressful and scary and exciting," said Highland Elementary School Destination Imagination voluntary coach and parent Sara Ervin of last Saturday's Destination Imagination regional competition in Roanoke. The Highland Elementary School team took first among five other schools. It also scored higher than the three middle-school teams competing that day. Since the beginning of the year six fourth- and fifth-graders have been in training. They are fifth-graders Katrina Roberson, Brittney Folks and Kenneth Sullivan; and fourth-graders Jeremy Johnsen, Dale Ervin and Joshua Brown. Parent Diane Sullivan is assistant coach. Training started in October twice a week for two hours. The last week before regional competition they met every night from 3:30-7 p.m.
They built their own scenery, wrote a play, built a structure of cards, and practiced instant challenges - problem solving skits.
DI is an educational problem-solving, improvisation, structural engineering competition. The HES team chose an engineering challenge for competition. Members had to build a structure out of playing cards 7-9 inches high, with a hole in the center to hold a pole. The structure had to hold weight. Points were based on the weight of the structure versus the weight of what it held. In addition, the team had to come up with a skit to show how a card or cards impact a characters' life and which incorporates the testing of the structure into that. They only had eight minutes to complete the project and skit. No one was allowed to help them.
The HES team's card structure held 115 pounds, more than the closest competitor with 60 pounds. What's more, the structure had to weigh no more than 3 ounces. That's like having a fifth-grader with a backpack full of books stand on 12 cheese crackers without crushing the crackers.
Johnsen said his favorite part of competing was winning. Dale Ervin said the hardest thing was putting weight on the structure they had made. Sullivan said for him the tough part was taking weight off their structure so that it would weigh less than three ounces. After the awards ceremony Saturday, the team ate a celebratory meal at the Cracker Barrel, said Brown.
The competition was more than building a card structure; they also had to perform. Folks was the main character. She had to tell the story of how they came up with the design for their structure. "When I heard we won, I started crying," she said. "I nearly jumped off the bleachers and ran to the front (of the auditorium)."
Next, the team goes to state competition April 14 at West Albemarle High School in Crozet.
Roberson was unable to go to Roanoke due to an out-of-town engagement, but she will join her team at state competition.
HES principal Teresa Blum asks everyone in the county to wear pink on Friday, April 13 in support of the HES DI team. "When I saw the other teams compete, I knew our team had a chance to win," said Blum. The competition was good, but the HES team was better, she said. "They were incredible. I am bursting with pride," said Blum. She says fund-raising will begin in earnest if the team wins the state competition to raise money to go to the global competition in Knoxville, Tenn. in May. A team from Highland went to globals three years ago.
This year's DI team will perform its eight-minute challenge 7 p.m. Monday for the Highland County School Board.
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