Student teams from Platt and Southern Hills middle schools showed outstanding creativity, team work and problem solving at the Destination ImagiNation Global Finals May 24 in Knoxville, TN.

The Platt Middle School “Spaced in Space” team placed 17th out of nearly 70 teams in Challenge A and Team “F.A.I.L.! (Funny Acronym Inducing Laughter)” of Southern Hills placed 18th out of 83 teams in Challenge C.

Challenge A was titled “Unidentified Moving Object” and was a technical challenge. It involved building equipment to move various materials to and from towering heights WITHOUT any AC electrical power. These competitors also gave sales promotions about the equipment they had designed.  Platt’s “Spaced in Space” team members were Brennan Grosjean, Graham Stevenson, Anna Huebler, Sarah Dalgleish, Parker Grosjean and Charlie Rey.

Challenge C, called the “Triple Take Road Show,” was a fine arts challenge which required competitors to use different storytelling methods to tell a story to pretend audiences, portray travel methods used to move the show between different audiences, and integrate a technical spectacle into a presentation. Southern Hills’ F.A.I.L.! team solution featured a created product called Temporary Disposition Spray, and presented this product’s unique benefits to parents and caregivers, emergency service workers, and marketers. Their presentation methods involved a reality musical, an infomercial and a life-size comic book. Their transportation methods channel-surfed the team from show to show, and blasted them from one skit to the next with virtual movement created by a scrolling backdrop.

Their Technical Spectacle demonstrated the scientific principles of pressure in a five-foot tall Mass Dispersal Cannon that shot out a dramatic plume of gluten-free flour.  They designed the cannon from recycled and trash materials, overcoming a variety of functional and design obstacles.  The “Side Trips” highlighted harmonized singing with choreography and a scrolling 30-foot long backdrop made from recycled materials, PVC pipe, and paint.

The Southern Hills team members were Laila Bevan, Matt Stensrud, Sam Scheeres, Justus Leben, Asa Allegra-Berger, and Yoshi Endo.

Congratulations to all the students and team managers for their great work!

Destination ImagiNation (DI) is a community-based, non-profit, volunteer-driven educational organization that teaches young people from kindergarten through university-level the critical and creative thinking skills needed for success in the 21st Century. DI works with more than 250,000 children and young adults in all 50 states and more than 40 countries each season.

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Destination ImagiNation, Inc. - http://www.idodi.org/