Neill Elementary Team Wins Second at State

Robbinsdale Area elementary Destination ImagiNation (DI) students know their destination – and it’s to a global tournament. The DI team at Neill Elementary School earned second place at the State Destination ImagiNation Tournament held at Champlin Park High School this past weekend, putting them in the position to advance to the Global Destination Imagination Tournament, which will be held in Knoxville, Tennessee on May 25 – 27.

The team was comprised of seven members, which included Mia Hanson, Leah Baker, Alyssa Egstad, Aaliyah Young, Ciarra Fagerlie, Ali Roston, and Kelly Mikkelson.

The problem students had to solve this year was called the “Triple Take Road Show”, under the fine arts category, where students had to use three different storytelling methods to tell the same story to three team-chosen pretend audiences. Not only that, the team had to then portray the travel methods to move their “road show” from one audience to the next. Finally, the team had to create a “technical spectacle” into one of the three presentations.

This problem focused on playwriting, theatrical presentation, storytelling, relevance, special effects, innovation and design  process, construction, and teamwork.

“We are very proud of our students and our coach,” said Heather Hanson, principal of Neill.

Destination ImagiNation, Inc. is a non-profit organization that provides outstanding educational opportunities for students across the United States and in more than thirty countries to learn and experience creativity, teamwork and problem solving – all skills critical to twenty-first century learning.

Destination ImagiNation is an after-school activity in which students work in teams to solve exciting challenges and present their solutions at tournaments.

The organization reaches over 100,000 students with more than 1.3 million alumni and a global network of 35,000 volunteers. The seven-member team from Neill can now count themselves as part of that successful network.

Editor's Note: This information was provided by Tia Clasen, communications director for the Robbinsdale Area Schools.