Jasmine MacGregor
Carihi Mirror
Victory was achieved by Carihi’s Destination Imagination team on March 5 at their regional competition in Comox at Highland Secondary.
The team of six students placed first among other competitors at the competition and competed at provincials in Surrey on April 9, where they placed fourth at the high school level.
Destination Imagination pushes the limits of student imagination by creating challenges for them to solve creatively and co-operatively with their teammates. Teams had to choose one challenge to be their main focus for the year. They could choose between challenges that fell under categories such as technical, structural, scientific and fine arts.
Carihi’s team selected the fine arts challenge, which required them to work as a team to create a very unique type of play.
“They had to base it around a specific time period before the 1990s,” said Destination Imagination teacher sponsor Thomas Diesch. “They had to come up with a mystery with a possibility of three different suspects. Their story really had to portray the time period they were in and provide evidence toward each suspect.”
But the performance wasn’t so simple.
“There’s a whole other level to the play called the ‘TechniClue,’” said Diesch. “They have to have some kind of technical innovation related to the time period included in their performance. It needs to helps them reveal who the suspect is. They also had to do some research so they could demonstrate how it works during their performance.”
In addition to the “TechniClue,” the team had to present two “Team Choice Elements” that wove the team’s interests, skills areas of strength and talents into the story.
Like any good performance, there is usually a twist; however, this one wasn’t directed at the audience, but to the cast. The team had to put the names of their suspects into envelopes prior to beginning their performance. The suspect was then randomly selected by the adjudicator.
“They [didn’t] know which of the three suspects [committed the crime] until they opened an envelope live on stage that had the name of the suspect,” said Diesch. “They then had to continue their performance based on who it was.”
The team performed in front of several adjudicators and was judged on elements such as: the creativity of the team’s story, the theatrical presentation and how well the students represented their time period, which in Carihi’s case was Pre-French Revolution. Twenty-five per cent of Carihi’s score came from participating in an “instant challenge,” where teams were given a task and a limited time to complete it.
“The challenge really made the team focus on problem solving, working as a team and being able to manage a project together,” said Diesch. “They all took on different roles. Different students were in charge of props, costumes and script writing.”
Diesch said his role as teacher sponsor in the actual creation of the play was minimal. “They were really able to delegate themselves.”
