Wit and creativity helped the Spiffy Flamingos from Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School finish 10th in the world at the Destination ImagiNation Global Finals last week.
In their first trip to the Global Finals, School District 71 teams finished 10th, 44th and 44th at the the largest annual event in the southeastern U.S.
Last week, 1,155 teams and their entourages from 17 countries descended on Knoxville, Tenn.
School District 71 sent three teams to the Global Finals — two provincial championship teams and one that had earned enough points at the provincials to qualify.
The local teams took 21 hours of travel to get to Knoxville — including cars, ferries, planes and buses.
Once there, students competed in one of six team challenges, as well as an Instant Challenge, which they cannot see in advance and for which they have a very finite time to solve.
The Spiffy Flamingos from Isfeld — Ethan Glenwright, Josh Duncan, Kyle Vaags, Melissa L’Heureux-Haché and Samm Merrick — who were selected to carry the B.C. flag into the opening ceremonies, finished 10th in the world in the Secondary Improvisation Challenge. Two team members who helped the team win the Provincials (Forrest Picher and Katarina Smith) were not able to make the trip to Globals.
Using their wit and creativity, the Spiffy Flamingos were able to tell a highly entertaining story created on the spot and received good scores on their Instant Challenge, according to a press release.
The Gods of Epicness from École Robb Road Elementary was a team of students in Grades 6 and 7 — Amelia Elder, Cassia Nasralla, Cate Wareing-Okasanen, Jacob Fussell, Kai Schwarz and Maxine Forman. They competed in the Middle School category and finished 44th out of 79 teams in the Improvisation Challenge.
ICE from Isfeld — Alasdair Yamagishi, Braela Pearce, Colin Walker, Devin Pelletier and Evan McMillan — finished 44th in the Secondary Technology Challenge. Teammates Maggie Bird and Damian Parlee, who helped them prepare for Globals, were unable to make the trip.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” said affiliate director Faith Garriock. “It’s only your district’s first year, and your teams are all competitive.”
Destination ImagiNation is the practical implementation of critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, innovation and problem solving.
In small teams, students accept a challenge and set to solving it.
Ultimately, they must creatively present their solutions to a panel of appraisers and to the public.
