Two UCS teams to take on the world in Global Finals of Destination Imagination

Two groups of Utica Community Schools students are planning to take on the world after winning top honors at the statewide Destination Imagination (DI) tournament.

Teams from Malow Junior High School and Browning Elementary earned the right to compete in the Global DI finals May 20 – May 24 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Each year, Destination Imagination presents “challenges” which teams of up to seven students can choose to compete in at the elementary, middle or secondary level.

This year there are six open-ended challenges that require the young people to use science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills. In addition, they apply must improvisation, theater arts, writing, project management, communication, innovation, teamwork and community service to reach solutions. All solutions must be designed and built by the student performers.

For Malow Junior High, this is the second year in a row they are moving on to the global competition. The team of Patrick Grabowski, Henry Kieliszewski, Jasmyn Malmgren, Lauren Seymour, Garret Waligora and Liberty Webster earned a first-place trophy for their design of a sea creature (they nicknamed ‘Ken’) that had to move, eat and communicate using technical methods.

“First place is awesome!” said Grabowski, who lead the creature design portion. “The competition is very tough and so many things possibly can go wrong – it is such a fine line between winning and losing.”

Browning Elementary students are competing in the finals through their “Brand Aid Challenge,” an outreach program requiring them to visit senior citizen centers where they played Wii with the residents, bowled with them or took part in arts and crafts. The project brand the students created included a logo and jingle.

Browning students involved in the project are Bennett Allamon, Maya Kosteski, Nick Glonka, Amber Cicilian, Julie Gasowski and Hail-Lee Peck. They are coached by teacher Breanne Werner. Browning qualified for the Global Finals after placing fifth in the state.

The Michigan Destination Imagination competition was held at Central Michigan University in mid-April 18.