Global Finals, Here We Come!

Cooper Elementary School took home three first place finishes on Saturday March 19 at the state Destination Imagination Tournament winning in three of the six elementary categories. This qualifies all three teams for the Global Finals to be held in Knoxville, TN.

The Destination Imagination program is a fun, hands-on system of learning that fosters students’ creativity, courage, and curiosity through open-ended academic challenges in the fields of STEM, fine arts, and service learning.

The third grade team won the Scientific category called In Plain Sight where they had to camouflage a character and research the many ways that camouflage is used by organisms in nature and create and present a story with a plot twist that is caused by the use of camouflage. Team members include Riley Kashella, Phillip Robinson, Donovan Johnson, Alexander Marshall, Aubrey Meadows, Ruthie Hendrix, and Lilly Santos. The team is led by Julie Pemberton.

The fourth grade won the Fine Arts category titled Get a Clue. They had to present a mystery story set on Earth in a team-chosen time period before 1990. They had to discover, live on stage, which of the three suspect characters is responsible for the mystery, include a TechniClue that helps solve the mystery, and present in the style of traverse staging. Team members include Logan Cummings, Logan Pezent, Brendon Dlearo, Adryenna Guthrie, Alayna Burger, Avery Britt, and Madison Taylor. The team is led by James Meadows.

The fifth grade team won the Service Learning category. They had to use the creative process to identify, design and carry out a project that addresses at least one real community need. They chose to bring back recycling to Cooper. Team members include Chisom Oraka, Amarachi Chigbu, Cadie Cooper, Kate Hunter, Mary Elizabeth Horton, Sydney Harris, and Amanda Robinson. The team is led by Bridgett Brown.

Destination Imagination Global Finals will be hosted on May 25 - 28 in Knoxville, Tennessee. 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 in our international competition, celebrate their creativity, and have fun.

If you would like to support these teams and make this trip possible, please click on the link below. All donations are tax deductible.

DI Global Finals Trip Empowering Students Through the Arts.