Students participate in problem solving competition

Delaney Swift, a freshman from Portales High School, has been competing in Destination Imagination since the third grade.

She and her PHS teammates won first place at the secondary school level for their improvisation challenge, Change in RealiTee, at the statewide competition in Albuquerque two weeks ago.

Destination Imagination is a creativity and problem solving competition for students in grades elementary through college. The students are placed in teams and each team is given a challenge that they must then solve and present to a panel of judges.

"It stresses teamwork," said Swift. "I don't care how good your solution is. I want to know that all the team members agree on it."

Although the teachers oversee the work, the teachers cannot help solve the challenges, so much so that the students have to sign a Declaration of Independence.

"Their solutions, it's all them," said Wendy Brooks, the advisor for the Destination Imagination program at PHS. "I could help them get materials and get them a place to practice, but I can't give them any solutions to anything."

The PHS team had to pretend that there were no notebooks left in the world and with blank T-shirts and markers as their only supplies, had to use a mode of communication to replace notebooks. The team solved the problem by making a commercial about how T-shirts could be used as notebooks.

"The thing about improv that most people don't realize is that it's all about how well your team knows each other," Swift said.

According to Brooks, this is the first year PHS has competed in the program but three of the five students on the high school team have competed in elementary and middle school competitions.

Cherena Holland, a freshman from PHS, competed in Destination Imagination for the first time this year.

"It is really good to know and have someone tell you and point you in the right direction," said Holland of her teammates. "They all helped and contributed and helped me fit in."

Katrina Prince runs the Destination Imagination program at the elementary and middle school levels for Portales Schools, and had teams that won first, second or third place in Albuquerque.

The Tic Tac Ninjas, a team from Lindsey-Steiner, won first place in the Wind Visible Challenge. The students prepared by researching wind energy, made kinetic art and prepared a skit in which an imaginary friend, the invisible visitor, set different objects in motion.

"In real life there isn't an invisible visitor, and so we have to set something in motion somehow," said Rebekah Christensen, a Tic Tac Ninja.

The Smarticle Particles, a Lindsey-Steiner team, were awarded third place in the In the Zone competition. The team built three minature cars and launched them onto a four-zoned track, aiming for highest of 10 zones while trying to avoid the Danger Zone where the teams would lose points. One of the cars was built with a pencil as its body and CDs as its wheels and was propelled by a rubber band.

"I think a lot of people agree that that was one of the hardest challenges," said Nachito Perez, a member of the Smarticle Particles.

The Milky Way Mustaches, another team from Lindsey-Steiner, took part in the In Disguise competition and took second place for their cohort.

According to Arielle Ables, one of the Milky Way Mustaches, the team had to perform a skit in which they did not speak but could make sound effects.

"We had to make two masks, one that was decorative and one that was a morphing mask and we had to have someone go into a disguise," Ables said.

Although both the PHS teams and the Tic Tac Ninjas have the option of going to the Destination Imagination Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn., in late May, the Tic Tac Ninjas are undecided about going and the PHS team does not have the funding for it. Also, one member of the PHS team is graduating this year, which may conflict with the competition schedule.