South Pasadena High School Destination Imagination Team win at State Finals

South Pasadena High School Destination Imagination Team “The Fellas over There with the Hella Good Hair” won first place at the California State Tournament and are bound for Global Finals.

The team is exhilarated and is gearing up for the Global Finals held in Knoxville, Tennessee, from May 20 to 23. Global Finals is the world’s largest celebration of creativity. Each May, more than 8,000 of the world’s most innovative minds compete in teams to showcase their challenge solutions, celebrate creativity and have fun. Because going to Global Finals is not an inexpensive proposition, the team will be pursing various types of fundraising including this Indiegogo site: https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/help-the-fellas-over-there-go-to-global-finals

The California State Tournament was held on Saturday, March 28, at the California State Destination Imagination Finals at the Riverside Convention Center (http://www.caldi.org/). “The Fellas over There with the Hella Good Hair” used their creativity and team skills to win first place in their “Lose to Win” Team and Instant Challenge.

For their challenge “Lose to Win” the team built a structure out of wood, playing cards, glue, and adhesive tape that weighed less than 75 grams (.16 lbs). During the tournament, a pressure board weighing 10 pounds was placed on top of the structure. The team then removed parts of the structure with a team-created removal device without the pressure board crushing the structure. While this was taking place, the team told a story about transformation and created a prop or set piece that was transformed during the presentation.

Here is some of the feedback from the “Lose to Win” challenge appraisers:

“Excellent scenery, great humor in the dialog, brilliant potato costume.”

“Thank you for sharing your presentation with us. It was an amusing representation of an evil potato ruling the world. Good effort!”

“Spectacularly evil scientist. Best potato acting ever, deserving of Oscar for best supporting potato.”

“The Fellas over There with the Hella Good Hair” are all in the 9th grade. George Barrone, Kanak Belgaum, Amaey Konkar, Jayce Lilly and Ellis Spellerberg attend the South Pasadena High School. Dimitri Augart-Peponis, a South Pasadena resident, attends Bridges Academy in Studio City. This is their third year as a team.

Destination Imagination (DI) is a volunteer-led nonprofit organization whose purpose is to inspire and equip students to become the next generation of innovators and leaders. Annually, DI offers seven new standards-based Challenges in STEM, Improv, Visual Arts, Service Learning and Early Learning. Each Challenge is open-ended and enables students to learn and experience the creative process from imagination to innovation. Academic tournaments take place around the world where teams have the opportunity to present their solutions to trained appraisers. Students have fun and gain confidence in their ability to solve any challenge. In working to solve Challenges, teams learn 21st century skills (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, citizenship and courage), step outside of their comfort zones to pursue ideas and make presentations, and build on their unique strengths.

http://www.destinationimagination.org/

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