After achieving honors for creativity, teamwork and innovation in regional and state academic tournaments, the Chagrin Falls Intermediate School "Floppy Guinea Pigs" Destination Imagination team...
Destination Imagination Global Finals
After achieving honors for creativity, teamwork and innovation in regional and state academic tournaments, the Chagrin Falls Intermediate School “Floppy Guinea Pigs” Destination Imagination team has earned the right to compete in the global finals, the world’s largest celebration of student creativity, to be held May 23-26 in Knoxville, Tenn. The members of The Floppy Guinea Pigs are Dylan Babic, Aiden Cabic, Cole Kilby, James Rose and Luke Weaver, all age 12.
The Floppy Guinea Pigs will compete with other teams in the Maze Craze, one of seven, open-ended challenges that require students to apply science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills, in addition to their talents in improvisation, theater arts, writing, project management, communication, innovation and teamwork.
“The team did a great job showing grit as they collaborated and negotiated with each other while they researched, experimented, failed and repeated the process until they found solutions that worked. The team picked a difficult challenge and they all learned new skills while also learning to work together. I am very proud of their effort,” said Kimberly Kilby, team manager.
During months of hard work and preparation to get to this point, the team has built a remote control car from scratch that must be navigated through a maze. They’ve experimented with chemical reactions to create a prop transformation, and are learning and using 3D printing to incorporate into an object to be removed from the maze by the car; all of this is presented during the performance of a play that the team wrote and acts out.
“My favorite part of DI is the instant challenges because there’s no time to debate what to do, we just do it,” said Dylan Babic.
“I really like how there are a lot of different challenges and you can meet new people, and you get to work with your friends, and it’s fun,” said Cole Kilby.
The Floppy Guinea Pigs are among the 8,000 students representing more than 1,400 teams that have advanced to participate in Global Finals 2018.
To help fund the students’ accommodations and entry fee, there are a couple fundraisers if the community would like to help support. There is a Go Fund Me campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/thefloppyguineapigs. There will be an ice skating fundraiser at The Pond in Chagrin Falls on May 5 from 5:30-7 p.m. The cost is $15 per person, which includes pizza and soda.
Destination Imagination (DI) has had a positive impact on more than two million students who have taken part in its acclaimed academic program. This year, more than 150,000 students have participated in tournaments throughout the U.S., as well as 30 countries, in hopes of earning a spot at the Global Finals competition in May.
Destination Imagination is a leader in project-based learning opportunities that blend STEM education with the arts and social entrepreneurship. Its academic Challenges are student-directed and are designed to teach kids how to think, not what to think. Teams who participate have the opportunity to present their solutions at regional and state tournaments.
Each year, DI competitions begin with a regional tournament, where team solutions are assessed by a panel of volunteer judges, who are trained in the specific challenge they are assessing. Each team solution is scored on a variety of elements, including originality, workmanship, presentation, and teamwork. Teams with the highest scores advance to the Affiliate (state or country) Tournaments. The top-tiered teams from the affiliate tournaments advance to global finals. For more information about Global Finals, visit http://globalfinals.org/.
