Destination Imagination (DI) teams from Hyer and Boone elementary schools are headed to state. Two of the teams won first place and one team placed second in their competitive categories at the Feb. 19 Regional Tournament at Marcus High School. Both teams are now heading to the State Tournament March 25-26 at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Hyer’s third-grade team created a story about microorganisms having a birthday party. The team won both overall awards for grades 3-12, and the DI Spirit and Renaissance Awards in addition to their first-place tournament win in the Science Challenge. The DI Spirit Award is given for perseverance and good sportsmanship in the face of unexpected challenges. The DI Renaissance Award recognizes outstanding creativity and skill in engineering, design or performance. Hyer team members are Abby Chong, Alice Hodges, Annie Taub, Sully Pierre and Timmy Chong.
Boone’s third-grade team designed a wooden structure that held more than 400 lbs. of weight before breaking, and they designed and made an electrical rotating jet pack. The team then wrote a script to tell a story about their design. The story was about an Ice Dragon climbing up a mountain. In the script, the ice dragon used a jet pack to win a race. The team won first place in the Engineering Challenge. Boone’s team members are Emily Kerr, Alina Manha, Liam Roslund, Olivia Stanwood, Caleb Vagefi, Tara Vaughn, and James Yen.
The Boone fourth-grade Destination Imagination (DI) team, Ze Mushromz, finished in second place at the Feb. 19 Regional Tournament at Marcus High School. DI officials notified Boone on March 7 that the second-place team will be the third team from HPISD advancing to the State Tournament March 25-26 at the University of Texas at Arlington.
The team competed in the Technical Category. They created and performed a story about animals that have to escape an island that is going under water due to climate change. The performance centered around some very hilarious puppets that build an electronic boat and hook up a raft to a winch on a neighboring island to escape their own. In the story the team safely make it to the other island thanks to the very creative technical devices the Boone students developed.
The team was also awarded the coveted Destination Imagination DaVincl Award, which is named after Leonardo DaVinci as one of humanity’s greatest creative thinkers and is awarded sparingly. The honor is given to a team for having a unique approach to a solution, for risk-taking, and outstanding creativity. The fourth-grade Boone team members are Mac Smith, Maggie Boone, Saleem Basit, Simran Saxena and Emma August.