On Apr 2nd, we attended the Washington State event for Destination Imagination at Wenatchee. 91 teams from across the state were in attendance. I observed fantastic creative work from the students across the state. I was also excited to have my daughter participate in one of the teams.
A few teams used “leaf blowers” to construct hover-board for the technical challenge. Technical Challenge asked teams to build vehicles that can demonstrate two different types of motions. There was a team that built elaborate – I mean 20′ long sliding board with plywood and 2’x4′ to act as rails for sliding a team mate besides having the team mate drive on the board.
In the “Fine Arts” category, the teams put together great theatrical performance enacting a mystery story. The kids were on a budget of at most $150 and hence have to accordingly deal with sets being low cost. That meant the kids were creative in use of cardboard and paint, applying artistic skills to make it better. The stories were entertaining and educative.
Learning science from books is a first step. Learning science with hands-on experience persists in our memories more. Even better combining science with story telling is fantastic. That is precisely what happened in the “Scientific” challenge where kids were asked to weave a story about camouflage of animals. I got to learn more about how various animals like snow leopards, dolphins, etc. protect themselves.
My daughter was in the “Service Learning” section where the kids applied creative ideas for community service. My daughter’s team focused on connecting seniors (at senior centers) with kittens (in humane society). The idea was to have with help from senior citizens, the kids proposed an idea to make kitty blankets from old (adult) blankets. Having a comfortable kitty blanket can enable the kitten to go home to new adopted homes easily. Two other teams pitched the idea of limiting bullying at schools and another one proposed ways to collect toys for poor children.
The kids in the “Structural” track brought forth their hands-on engineering skills to build a compact weight bearing structure. Built using simple materials to the stringent dimensional requirements of 10′ height, 8′ width and 8′ width, these small structures weighing at no more than 175 grams were incredible. Some teams demonstrated how their structure can hold up to 600 pounds of weight atop. Besides this structure, an individual had custom built his own musical organ (with wood, pressure chamber, keys, hollow pipes) and composed music on the same. Fantastic creativity!
The students from the 3rd grade to 12th grade, brought amazing creativity to show. It is encouraging to see the kids think beyond their school work, work as a team, and learn more. It was incredibly amazing to see the creative art work, custom built musical instruments, demonstration props, costumes, and tell a convincing story.
I was fortunate to have this opportunity to witness this program. I look forward to learning more in the future.
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