Record year for Destination Imagination at Bay Village Schools

State DI winners and Bay High students (l-r): Jessica Perri, Olivia Risch and Jessica Bohannon from Team Superman's Cake Shoes. Photo by Holly Risch

Three Bay Village Schools teams will compete at the Destination Imagination (DI) Global Finals at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, May 20-23. Their outstanding performances at DI's Ohio state tournament in Mount Vernon advanced the teams from Westerly Elementary, Bay Middle School and Bay High School to the international level. These three teams will be competing against teams from 45 states and 14 countries at the Global Finals. Over 16,000 attendees are anticipated to participate in this event, the world's largest celebration of creativity.

In all, 20 teams from the Bay Village Schools competed in this year's DI competition, beginning at the regional tournament held at Beachwood High School. This is a record number of teams sent by the district to this competition requiring innovative and creative problem solving, using skills from both the arts and sciences.

Teams from all four of the district’s school buildings, representing kindergartners through high school seniors, competed. Five Bay Village Schools teams qualified for the state level competition held in Mt. Vernon, with three teams advancing to the Global Finals.

Westerly students Iain Ray, James Fowles, James Chilton, Maeve Ransom, Finn Meadows, Patrick Lehane, and Annie Davenport (team named The Crew) will be presenting their service project in a challenge called Brand Aid. In this challenge, students had to carry out a community service project that addressed a real need in the community. They also had to create a brand and logo for their project and create a live presentation that highlighted the project and included a project evaluation.  

Bay Middle School students Audrey Ray, Ava Ransom, Olivia Reed, Grace Chilton, Patty Yuhas, Eliza Aleksandrovic, and Caroline Fowles (team named Aqua Girls) will be participating in the Feary Tales challenge. This group had to create a fairy tale about a character that faces and deals with a phobia. They also created a functional artwork that served a practical function, as well as an expressive artwork that conveyed a thought or feeling.  

Bay High students Olivia Risch, Jessica Bohannon, and Jessica Perri (team named Superman's Cake Shoes) built a structure that weighed less than 75 grams that could support a pressure board placed on top of it. During their performance, they removed parts from the structure while it continued to support weight. Their structure was the lightest of any structures in the high school division, allowing them to earn an additional bonus. Their challenge was appropriately named Lose to Win.
 
This is the third trip to the DI Global Finals for the team Aqua Girls, the first Bay Village Schools team to compete at the global level. The advisor for the Bay Village City School District's Destination Imagination program is teacher Marian Harmount. A video of all 20 teams in costume during the competitions is available at bayvillageschools.com/DI.

Karen Derby

Director of Communications for the Bay Village City School District

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Volume 7, Issue 10, Posted 9:43 AM, 05.19.2015