By Rebecca Thompson | Destination Imagination
Two Destination Imagination teams from Pagosa Springs Elementary School competed at the DI Regional Competition at Escalante Middle School in Durango on March 4. They competed against teams from Cortez, Durango, Dolores and Utah. Both teams qualified to go on to compete in Denver at the state level.
The first team, “The No Name Dogs,” made up of Savannah Graves, Kaci Moeller, Jeri Moeller and Maheyla Witting, competed in the scientific challenge. They had to create a story in the style of a tall tale that include an exaggerated character with a hyperbolic trait and a scientific analysis to determine whether or not the exaggerated character could actually exhibit the hyperbolic trait. This team was coached by Jill Witting and received a first-place medal.
The second team, “The Bamboozlers,” including Maheyla Witting, Ashlynn Mathis, Ana Romero Gallegos, Riley Sanders, Bodhi King and Gabriela Padilla, was coached by Ben and Wells Witting. They competed in the engineering challenge and placed second. Their challenge was to design and build a roller coaster with a launching mechanism that starts moving a golf ball along the roller coaster track with a skit depicting the ride. They earned points for how far and how fast the ball went.
Destination Imagination is a competition that challenges students in one of seven open-ended challenges requiring teams of young people to apply science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), in addition to improvisation, theater arts, writing, project management, communication, innovation, teamwork and community service.
The state competition will be at the Denver Auraria Campus on April 1. This tournament has teams competing from public schools across the state and from every level, 5A to 1A, as well as students who are home-schooled or from private schools.
