Laguna Beach Teams Head To State Destination Imagination Tourney

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — Nine teams representing Laguna Beach High School, Thurston Middle School, and Top of the World Elementary from Laguna Beach Unified School District have qualified to move on to the Destination Imagination (DI) state competition on April 6 in Clovis.

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.

Five LBUSD teams competed in the Technical Challenge: On Target. Their challenge was to design and build an aircraft that takes off, flies, and lands; design the aircraft to deliver a team-created payload, and to create and present a story about one or more characters exploring a remote place.
Three teams competed in the Improvisational Challenge (Heads Up). The challenge asked them to research historical figures found on coins from around the world, create and present an improvisational skit that includes the historical figures in a tale, integrate an event that has an impact on the tale, present the skit in two parts changing between comedy and tragedy and present the skit in two styles, changing from verbal to nonverbal.

Finally, one team competed in the Scientific Challenge (Medical Mystery) where they were asked to research the human body and medical conditions that affect the human body, create and present a story about a medical mystery that affects a human character, design and build a representation that shows the medical mystery and at least one symptom, and present an action or scene that is shown from two or more perspectives at the same time.

“We are so proud of the hard work and creativity of our teams and I am thrilled that Destination Imagination has expanded with an all-time record of nine teams from the Laguna Beach Unified School District,” said Ina Inouye Wu, one of the Destination Imagination club advisors at Thurston Middle School. “DI definitely fulfills a need in our students for creative problem-solving,” she concluded.

Winners of the state competition compete at the global competition in Kansas City, Missouri in May.

Team Members are:
Hannah (8th grade)
Aidan (8th grade)
Sebastian (7th grade)
Tyler (7th grade)
Chase (6th grade)
Kai Jay (6th grade)