Laguna Beach Teams Head To CA Destination Imagination Competition

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — It's go time for six Laguna Beach teams as they progress to the next round of Destination Imagination. The state competition, to be held in Clovis, Calif. on April 7 has been the goal for these kids.

Teams from Laguna Beach High School, Thurston Middle School, and Top of the World Elementary from Laguna Beach Unified School District will compete in the state level of this international tournament.

Destination Imagination is an international, educational program that enhances the growth and learning students receive in the classroom. Teams of students, ranging from third grade through university level, solve one of six open-ended Challenges in the fields of STEM, fine arts, and service learning and present their solutions at tournaments.

For Laguna Beach, three teams competed in the Scientific Challenge: Unlikely Attraction. Their challenge was to explore scientific concepts used in amusement park attractions, design and build an attraction that uses scientific concepts during its operation, create and present a story that features the attraction operating in an unlikely location, and portray the unlikely location using sights and sounds.

Two teams competed in the Technical Challenge. The challenge asked them to design and build a device to navigate a tournament-provided maze, design and build a prop that transforms in the maze, design and build a way to remove an object from the maze, and create and present a story about a journey through the maze.

Finally, two teams competed in the Improvisational Challenge where they were asked to research different cultures and famous explorers, create and present an improvisational skit about a quest to return a lost cultural treasure to its owner, integrate two explorers and a prop into the quest, and show how characters work together to overcome a setback.

“Thurston Middle School DI teams represented Thurston with great intelligence, creativity, and humor,” said Ina Inouye Wu and Bjorn Avila, Destination Imagination club advisors at Thurston Middle School. They continued, “We are so proud of all the students for their months of hard work, perseverance, and out-of-the-box thinking to solve DI challenges.”

Winners of the state competition compete at the global competition in Knoxville, Tennessee in May.

Photos, courtesy Laguna Beach Unified School District