Valley Elementary School’s DI team looks towards Global competition (Part Two)

In part one of this pair of stories we met a team of four seventh graders whose prizewinning skit about camouflage, mixed with a little wizardry, landed them a place in the Global Competition of Destination Imagination. This event, which hosts students from all over this country, and the whole world, in Knoxville Tennessee calls itself, “the World’s Largest Celebration of Creativity”.   Eliza, Coult, Jackson and Fred had all been practicing for months the problem-solving exercises that DI presents as challenges.  Their teamwork improved, and they incorporated judges’ suggestions into their process.

Eliza Brumfeil,

“We did a lot better on our instant challenge. We got forty points on our first one, and then on our second one we got like 92 points . . . .   out of a hundred .   .   .   out of a hundred.”

These four had to think hard to identify, just exactly what they had learned through their practices with brainstorming, troubleshooting and inventing, but that’s the case with plenty of valuable and memorable childhood experiences. Some of the important skills improved through a DI experience are patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the collaborative problem solving process.

When I asked Coult what he liked best about the experience, he replied.

“Well, my favorite part is really, it’s not what I expected it to be, because the first two or three weeks, I gotta stay at school like two or three hours more.

‘Thanks for signing me up for this Mom’, and then two weeks after that, maybe a month or two in, I’m like, ‘Hey, this is awesome. Thanks for signing me up for this Mom!” (Laughter)

So now the challenge remains, to raise close to $3,000 in the next ten days. There is a GoFundMe page for the Valley elementary School Destination Imagination team, or checks can be written directly to Destination Imagination, which is a non-profit, and sent or hand-delivered to VES, 98 Panther Drive, Hot Springs, 24445.

I asked Fred, Eliza, Coult and Jackson if the Great Horned Owl of their Central or Team Challenge, who blended so easily into his surroundings, was sewn or hammered together, and they assured me, papier mache, feathers, and

“Lots and Lots of hot glue.”