Whiz Kids: Melrose Destination ImagiNation Winning Teams

Melrose Patch Whiz Kids of the Week: Destination ImagiNation Regional Tournament winners. 

• Schools: Hoover Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, Roosevelt Elementary, Winthrop Elementary, Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, Acera School, Melrose High School, Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School and several home schooled children.
• Accomplishment: Five teams were first place regional champions in their age group for their challenge and will compete Saturday, March 31 in the state tournament in Worcester.   

From Jennifer Leclerc: 

Last week, more than 100 Melrose students ranging from kindergarten through 11th grade competed against peers from the Metro North region at Beverly High School in the 2011-2012 Destination ImagiNation Regional Tournament. 

Destination ImagiNation is an educational program in which student teams solve open-ended challenges and present their solutions at tournaments. The program encourages teams of learners to have fun, take risks, focus, and frame challenges while incorporating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the arts, and service learning.

The 21 Melrose teams came from Hoover Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, Roosevelt Elementary, Winthrop Elementary, Mystic Valley Regional Charter School,Acera School, Melrose High School, Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School, and several home schooled children. 

Five teams took home the 1st Place Regional Champion title in their age group for their challenge and will move on to compete Saturday, March 31st in the State Tournament in Worcester, MA. 

First place winning teams going on to compete at the State level are:

“Assembly Required” technical challenge, middle school level

Acera School

Darcy Angle, Isabella Klepikoff, Alice Egar, and Leila Zisk.

Team manager Amanda Gruber

“Coming Attractions” theatrical challenge, middle school level

Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School

Lea Bagley, Alison Butts, Madelyn Jancsy, Rose Meier, Olivia Rittenburg, and Jenna Santos. Team managers Diane Astle Bagley and Ed Butts

“Coming Attractions” theatrical challenge, middle school level

Acera School

Owen Murray, Katie McAvoy, Xavier Rodriguez, Julia Talbot, Maya Hamberg, and Kobi Russell.  Team manager Molly Swanson

“News to Me” improvisational challenge, elementary level

Lincoln Elementary & Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, 4th & 5th grade team.

Abigail Clarke, Clara Martin, Annika Schaad, Elizabeth Schwarze, Lydia Steger-Wilson, and Kate Wieneke.  Team managers Kathi Rossi-Roh and Arielle Slatus 

“Hold It” engineering challenge, high school level

Melrose High School, Malden Catholic and the Commonwealth School, 11th grade

Dan Daye, Nick Mroz, Sean Pelrine, Matthew Primiano, and Jordan Rubbins

Team managers Paula Mroz and Paul Szabo 

In addition, a home-school team of 5th and 6th graders from Melrose took 2nd Place in the “Solar Stage” scientific challenge (Cole Kraus, Simone Testa, Eli Nauda, Sofia Quinci, and Sophie Sniegocki, led by team manager Erika Nauda).  And, a Winthrop Elementary 4th Grade team took 3rd place in the “News to Me” improvisational challenge (Harrison Barker, Matthew Deeble, Collin Gray, and Jimmy Markham, led by team manager Deb Gray).  

The high school projectOUTREACH® team will also present their project at the State tournament in Worcester this Saturday.  projectOUTREACH® is a Destination ImagiNation team challenge designed to engage students in community activism. Teams are invited to select an issue in their community, and then use marketing techniques as a tool to address that issue and engage others in their community to promote their cause. The Melrose projectOUTREACH® team supports Bill 3838, an act providing housing and support services for unaccompanied homeless youth. The team was led by Pat Laidley and comprised of 9th graders from Melrose High School and Austin Prep:  Addison Dowell, Jenna Laidley, Lauren Parr, Rachael Sverdlove.

Destination ImagiNation Team Challenges are designed to be open-ended and multidisciplinary. Teams spend several weeks or months working on the team challenge of their choice, and they present their solutions at the tournament. Each of the six competitive team challenges has a different educational and creative focus:

Challenge A:  “Assembly Required” Technical Challenge

Team members design and build equipment that retrieves parts and delivers products.

They assemble products from team-provided parts to fill orders, and use the products in the team’s presentation of a team-created story about something that happens just in time.

Challenge B:  “The Solar Stage” Scientific Challenge

Team members create and present a theatrical performance that tells a story about the use of solar energy. They must integrate research about past and/or current uses of solar energy, design and create a solar energy prototype that demonstrates a new way to collect, capture and use solar energy, and finally, design and provide theatrical lighting to illuminate their presentation and create special theatrical effects.

Challenge C:  “Coming Attractions” Fine Arts Challenge

Team members present a movie trailer involving characters from at least two nations.

They design a cinematic special effect and feature it in the movie trailer, and create an original soundtrack that complements the movie trailer.

Challenge D: “News To Me” Improvisational Challenge

Team members learn about different types of news stories and about cause-and-effect relationships. They then create a 5-minute improvisational skit about the cause-and-effect relationship between two unrelated news stories.

Challenge E:  “Hold It!” Structural Challenge

Team members design, build and test a structure made entirely out of wood and glue to hold and contain golf balls. The team designs and builds a delivery device that will deposit the golf balls, one at a time, into the structure. They create and present an original story about a “Captivator,” incorporating their structure and delivery device.

Rising Stars, “Built to Last” Challenge

Destination Imagination also has a non-competitive program designed for 4- to 7-year-old students. This year’s Rising Stars challenge designed for students to learn about toys and how they have changed over time. Team members create a play about making the last toy that will ever be made, and explore how their team works together to make decisions about the team-created toy.

About Destination ImagiNation:

Destination ImagiNation, Inc. is a non-profit organization that provides educational programs for students to learn and experience creativity, teamwork and problem solving.  Destination ImagiNation has more than 1.3 million alumni and a global network of 35,000 volunteers.

Website:   http://www.idodi.org/index.php

The Melrose Destination ImagiNation Program, as well as the Region 6 (metro North) Regional Tourment is managed by Co-Directors Kathi Rossi-Roh & Josh Shortlidge, who put in countless hours organizing teams, communicating with parents, organizing improv practice workshops, and most importantly, coordinating and producing the day long Regional Tournament at Beverly High School.