These kids combine big brains and creative imaginations to wow Tri-Cities onlookers
Four Sacajawea Elementary students moved a cardboard box, a giant marionette paddle and other props into place in a tensely quiet classroom Saturday morning.
Their story of a marionette, turned dummy, turned monster featured a 2-inch by 2-inch block of red oak with holes drilled into it. It is designed to hold 320 pounds by the time they’re finished with the story.
“The hardest part for them is that they were trying to use a hole saw. It’s hard to hold it straight,” the team’s manager, Joe Rubinaccio, said. “They came up with a way to use clamps to hold it in place. ... I think we broke four or five pieces of wood before they got it right”
The presentation has taken months of preparation, and like all the other teams that converged at Southridge High School on Saturday, they were hoping to earn a spot at Destination Imagination Global Finals in Kansas City, Mo.
While delay at the beginning of the session meant they weren’t able to finish stacking weights or finish their skit, the problems are part of the experience of the event. It will leave the kids better able to deal with failure in the future, Rubinaccio said.
“The kids learn leadership and teamwork,” he said. “My team was a team of kids who were very quiet and kept to themselves. You watch them grow into kids who are able to express themselves without fear of their teammates being negative of them.”
More than 2 million students have participated in the program during its 37-year history. It encourages students to work together and solve science, technology, engineering, arts and math problems.
The structure challenge was just one of six types of competitions the teams could have participated in. About 90 teams from elementary to high school students put together projects ranging from community service to building a drone or balloon to fly five payloads to a target.
They then came up with a skit based on a theme, and they presented it to the judges.
Learning that lasts
When Marcia Rubenstein, the co-director of the tournament, is asked to explain the strengths of Destination Imagination, she has two answers: the enthusiasm of the children participating and the parents who lend their time to help.
The kids participating say it’s awesome. She never sees a shortage of children willing to participate as they dream up stories about moldering vegetables or hypnotic pearls.
The adults managing the teams see children who learn confidence, critical thinking skills, teamwork and the ability to improvise.
“There is no adult intervention,” she said. “Anything that you see these kids do, they have imagined it, they have implemented it. They review what they have implemented. They go back and make changes.”
In her 20 years with the program she has seen kids transform. She remembers a third-grader who wouldn’t speak in public, and by the end of the program, the child was improvising in front of an audience.
This is a refrain that is repeated by the dozens of volunteers leading the different competitions. In one of the rooms, a group of students named the Taco Cats talked about their cleanup of Zintel Canyon. This community service competition has the students develop a project to meet a need, and then implement it.
Paul Fisher, a volunteer, said he’s seen children collect clothing for kids in foster care, students lead outreach programs for first-time students and several other projects.
People looking for a team or a chance to volunteer can find more information at www.wa-di.org.