Area Students Champs At Using Imaginations Seven Teams Headed To World Finals

According to seven third-graders at Pioneer Elementary School in Veradale, their “fruit roller coaster” is faster than the rides at Silverwood Theme Park.

Their miniature roller coaster, made of plastic tubing, duct tape, plywood and powered by a Shop-Vac, does a corkscrew, a loop the loop and clears a jump.

The kids, who demonstrated the contraption to their classmates Friday, are hoping to thrill the judges at the world finals of the Destination ImagiNation academic competition, which will be next month at Iowa State University.

They will be in good company.

The Pioneer students are among seven Eastern Washington teams to win first place in last weekend’s state finals that are now heading to the international competition.

A total of 19 K-12 teams from Washington will be represented at the event. The fact that more than a third are from the Eastern Washington district - one of six districts in the state - is unprecedented.

“It’s a really big deal and we are very excited,” said Michele Moore, Destination ImagiNation’s Eastern Washington regional director.

Destination ImagiNation, which has all but replaced Odyssey of the Mind in Washington, promotes creative, team-based, problem-solving by giving students some unusual challenges.

In addition to the Pioneer students, teams from Spokane’s Jefferson Elementary School and Sacajawea Middle School, Central Valley High School, Northport High School, and Pullman High School and Pullman’s Jefferson Elementary School are all going to the global finals. They will compete among 7,000 students from 40 states and 12 countries.

“Food for thought” is the theme for this year’s challenges. Students build creative inventions, prepare skits and demonstrate improvisation skills to solve the problems. At the competition, they have up to 10 minutes to present it all.

The fruit roller coaster problem is a lesson on mass production. The goal: move tennis balls (symbolizing fruit) through the roller coaster as fast as possible.

“It’s faster than Tremors at Silverwood Theme Park,” sang Pioneer student Colleen Culbertson, as her team acted out mischievous fruit trying to sneak onto the ride without tickets. “All you have to do is say `let me on.’ Dogs just have to bark.”

The Central Valley High School team, which went to the world finals last year, also has chosen the roller coaster challenge. The teams compete in four different age groups.

The Northport team is hoping to outdo itself. Last year’s team placed 17th in the world finals, and was the sixth Northport team to make it to the international competition since 1989.

“Once you’ve been to the world finals and you know what other teams have got, you see what is expected of a world class team,” said Northport teacher and coach Karma Goodwin. “Hopefully this will become a habit for Eastern Washington teams.”

The Northport team has solved the “It’s Not Impastable” challenge by engineering and building a 9-inch tall dry noodle tower. And they tackle a rather weighty social problem in their skit.

“Ours is about the stability of the human mind and how harassment at schools can lead to instability and suicide,” Goodwin said.

Spokane’s Jefferson Elementary team has taken on “Mixing Apples and Oranges,” which requires them to show what happens when a creature is forced to live in another creature’s habitat.

Their skit, titled “Flies are From Mars, Flytraps are From Venus,” is a lighthearted drama about a fly who adopts an orphaned flytrap into its home.

For the parents and teachers coaching the teams, the biggest challenge can be biting their tongues and sitting on their hands.

“We are not allowed to give them any input into the solution whatsoever,” said parent Mary Ann Sharkey, who coaches the Jefferson team from Spokane.

Now that the teams are headed to the world finals, a new challenge has arisen - how to pay for the trips.

“The students plan to do car washes and bake sales and rent themselves out to do yardwork,” said Rena Mincks, teacher and coach for the Pullman Jefferson Elementary team.

Sacajawea coach Kandy Conrad said her team also is planning fund-raisers, everything from a garage sale to peddling rootbeer floats. She’s also hoping coaches can organize a skit night, where the community would be invited to see all of the teams perform and make donations.

Also, a special donations fund has been set up that will be used to pay for the teams’ expenses. Donations may be made to the Washington Imagination Network by calling Michele Moore at 747-7861.