Students show thinking, planning, creating skills
Imagine this.
A whole building full of kids of all sizes, some dressed in costumes, the rest in t-shirts signifying they were headed to Destination Imagination.
They have arrived.
Matt Jones, left, 15, and Richard Wells, 17, both of Wonderview, participated in the Destination Imagination Tournament on Saturday at Central Baptist College. The tournament is a creativity and problem solving event for kids in grades K through 12. Jones and Wells were a page from a medical text book and a squirrel respectively which they included in their skits. ANTHONY REYES PHOTO
The Northern Regional Arkansas Destination Imagination Tournament was Saturday at Central Baptist College.
Teams of six students each were challenged with a variety of tests all day. But not the sit-down, fill-in-the-blanks kind.
In one event, "Upbeat Improv," each team was given a bunch of objects, two kinds of music and a "mood," and from that the team had to come up with a six-minute skit.
It had to make sense, required a knowledge of music, featured some choreography and got higher scores if, along the way, it was entertaining.
For instance, the fourth-grade team coached by Ella Cardin of Greenbrier Eastside Elementary, was to use Klezmer (Jewish folk music) and opera music, build something useful with cardboard tubes, rubberbands and a piece of leather, and their mood was to be "scared."
The team, composed of Ariel McHenry, Maia Larson Gettinger, Jordan McKay, Ashley Poole, Spencer Cardin and Jonathan Logan, hopped around happily when the judge went over their scores for the Upbeat Improv segment of the contest.
"We did great! Didn't we?" one student asked. "Did we win? I bet we win! You think we won?" asked another.
Cardin, in a calming, fourth-grade-teacher's voice, replied: "We all are winners here today."
And it's true. Because there was only one other team in Eastside's category, both Eastside and Collegeville Elementary in Bryant will go April 3 to the state competition in Hot Springs.
The Eastside team has worked for months preparing its response to a special challenge. "But we can't talk about it," Cardin said. "We don't want someone else to overhear us."
According to its Web site at www.destinationimagination.org, Destination Imagination, created by parents and teachers, takes the concepts of creativity, problem-solving and teamwork and packages them in a fun and meaningful program.
It is based on the concept of divergent thinking - understanding there is more than one way to solve a problem. It encourages children, grades K-12, to work together as teams and discover technical, theatrical, analytical, comic, linguistic or musical talents.
That must explain why there was an invasion of "Evil Monkey Kings" running through the hallways.
(Staff writer Becky Harris can be reached at 501-505-1236 or at becky.harris@thecabin.net)