The Funky Bunch Team a hit at Destination Imagination

Five students from Dougherty and Kolb Elementary schools formed a Destination Imagination team, known as The Funky Bunch, at the start of this school year.

They competed in a Regional Drop Zone Engineering Challenge and took 2nd place in their division. This qualified their team to move on to the State Destination Imagination Tournament in Clovis on April 7.

The Destination Imagination program is described as “a fun, hands-on system of learning that fosters students’ creativity, courage and curiosity through open-ended academic Challenges in the fields of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), fine arts and service learning.”

Destination Imagination's Engineering Challenge asks teams to design, build and test load-bearing structures made out of specific materials.

Team instructions for the Engineering Challenge, Drop Zone, were as follows (source: Destination Imagination):

- Design, build and test a freestanding structure that can withstand impacts from dropped weights.

- Tell a story about a sudden event with dramatic impact.

- Design and create a visible or audible depiction of the story’s sudden event.

- Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

The Funky Bunch team members, all 5th graders from Dougherty and Kolb Elementary Schools, are:

1. Ethan Chau

2. Logan Chook

3. Jacob Jung

4. Ryan Kratky

5. Ian Lam

Destination Imagination website indicates that challenges are “open to all kindergarten through university level students worldwide. Students form teams of up to 7 members, select their preferred Challenge and work together to develop a solution to the Challenge. Each team has at least one Team Manager (often a parent or teacher) who helps keep the team on track, but does not assist or interfere with the team’s project.”

Deborah Kratky, proud parent and volunteer for The Funky Bunch Destination Imagination Team said “We are so proud of their hard work, and hope you can help us congratulate them and wish them the best of luck at their next competition!”