DI team returns, eager to go again next year BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
MONTEREY - "Everyone there (at Destination Imagination Global competition Knoxville, Tenn, May 22-26) was a winner at regional and state Destination Imagination competitions," said Highland Elementary School principal Teresa Blum, who accompanied the team to Tennessee.
"What are we saying to the children? We want to say we believe in them," said Blum. "We don't want them to feel they have to win, we want them to know we believe they can win."
"Once you see the quality of the kids and the people you meet (at globals), their enthusiasm and how much it means to everybody, it is overwhelming," said Sara Ervin, team coach and team member Dale Ervin's mother.
"They tried things that didn't work (in Knoxville), it didn't go the way they hoped, but they are eager to go again," said Blum.
Team members, fourth and fifth graders Dale Ervin, Kenneth Sullivan, Brittney Folks, Josh Brown, Katrina Roberson and Jeremy Johnsen, were hoping to do well in Knoxville.
The HES team had its challenge at 11 a.m. on Thursday, following two days of activities that kept them going from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. They were up against 45 other elementary school teams in their category from across the United States and around the world. There were 991 teams in all.
Highland's challenge was to build a weight-bearing playing card structure and to put on a skit to go with it based on the challenge theme of "Cardiology."
Two teams judged earlier in the day had card structures that held more than 1,000 pounds. The HES team knew their structure could hold around 150 pounds, and knew that wasn't enough to win.
Unfortunately, the HES structure failed when it mattered the most. It held only 10 pounds, collapsing under the additional 55 pounds added at the beginning of its weight test. The glue they used to put their structure together broke down in the Tennessee humidity.
"You can't always finish at the top," said Blum. "That's reality. You don't know what others are bringing to the competition."
Teams from Texas and Wisconsin routinely place near the top of the standings at global competition, but they have DI as part of their school's curriculum, said Blum. Highland's team had to work exclusively after school to prepare for competition.
They had an instant challenge the next day after the card challenge, said Ervin. An instant challenge is a problem the team doesn't have time to prepare for in advance. They are handed a problem and have minutes to figure it out. Having experienced the disappointment of finishing near the bottom of their category the day before, they had to rally and give the instant challenge their best effort. "You can't get off focus, you still have to focus," said Ervin.
"It wasn't their best, but they had an extremely hard challenge," she added. "It was a multi-phased challenge, they did about average on it. They didn't lose their cool, that was good."
The challenge they were given is a closely guarded secret. It makes it that much harder for others to prepare for next year if they have no idea what to expect. Teams are supposed to be ready for anything.
Destination Imagination is a creative problem-solving competition. Teams made up of six or seven students from third grade through college (starts at fourth grade in Highland), compete in various challenges that test their organization, communication and teamwork skills.
"DI makes the children better people," said Blum. "The lives of these six children has changed. They are more confident, more willing to share ideas, they are valued as people. They now feel anything is possible.
"No matter what problem is thrown at you, if you know your teammates and what they can do to help solve the problem, you can handle it."
"I think (the team) did really well. They were told how proud they should be - first time team, first time anybody from Highland County had done a technical challenge, and they made it to globals," Ervin said.
It takes determination to be a Destination Imagination team member. Practice begins in the fall and continues for the rest of the school year. "They had to learn to work with each other. They worked hard. They worked a lot of long hours. They worked when they would rather have watched TV. They put a lot of effort into it.
"I think they are proud of themselves, self-esteem is through the ceiling, you couldn't measure it. I think they think they can do whatever they set out to do," she said.
"The principle of the thing is they have to create the entire thing (their challenge project)," said Ervin. "You can't so much as put a kid's hair in a pony tail, you can't do anything, they have to be responsible for it, they have to create it, they have to set it up and go on with it."
"They are ready to go again," she added. "They all want to do it again. I would like to take a team again next year. I don't think I could stop Dale from doing it again."
Next year things will be a little different, Blum and Ervin said.
For one thing, they won't wait until the end of the school year to start raising money for the team. This year $10,000 had to be put together in less than four weeks; $3,300 had to be sent to Knoxville days after the team placed at state competition, just to reserve a space. Next year fund-raising begins in September and continues all year.
The team exceeded its goal of raising $10,000 this year; the exact amount won't be known for several weeks. Blum expects the next team won't have to start with no money in the bank, though.
Blum hopes the middle school will have a team next year and maybe a high school team will form to go to globals for the Extreme Challenge - high school and college teams are given a challenge at the competition and given one night to come up with a solution, presenting the solution the following day.
"In the effort to improve the program, I have two parents coordinating an instant challenge club in third grade next year," said Blum.
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