Tasker students going global with Destination Imagination By NATHANAEL T. MILLER For the Blade-News
A select group of young Bowie students will be going global May 21-24 in Knoxville, Tenn., when they compete against teams from all over the United States and 14 other countries in Destination Imagination's Global Competition.
The Benjamin Tasker Middle School Destination Imagination Team is the first Prince George's County team to advance to the "DI" Global Competition in eight years. The five members of the Benjamin Tasker team are in the sixth and seventh grades, but already they have established themselves as innovative thinkers and creative problem solvers. Team members are Cheyenne Goldfarb, Isabella Swafford, Victoria and Madison Simmons, and Emily Miller. The students are excited about the opportunity ahead of them, and are eager to tell anyone they can about being part of DI.
Victoria said DI is a "program for creative problem solving and using your imagination without adults' help." Each fall the DI issues five challenges designed to stimulate young people's creative ideas and exercise their critical thinking skills.
"We have different challenges," explained Emily, "and you pick one, and then you come up with a solution to it." Emily said teams can choose a challenge that involves technical and mechanical challenges, theatre arts (with emphasis on science, fine arts or improvisation) or structural challenges involved in building something.
"We usually go for the building challenges, which are not as popular as the other ones," Victoria said. Cheyenne agrees, "I like to build stuff and I like to travel." He loves taking their work to the different locations for the competitions.
Tracy Goldfarb, Cheyenne's mother, is effusive in her praise for the DI program. "I love it. I love the fact that they're forced to think on their feet," Goldfarb said. She explained her son has been involved with Benjamin Tasker's team for three years, and she sees nothing but positive results from his experience. "They teach the kids critical thinking," she commented.
The team works on the challenge all year. As they progress through the school year and the various level of competition, they refine their solution and fine-tune their presentation. "We had to make a structure out of wood that met certain height requirements," Emily said. Their structure then had to be tested holding various weights in two different ways. The Benjamin Tasker team eventually settled on a simple L-shape design for the structure. However, merely hanging weights on the structure was not the limit of their challenge.
The team must present the test as part of a skit, complete with plot, characters and costumes. Showmanship counts for a great deal in DI. "I make a lot of the costumes," said Madison, describing the skit through which they will test their structure. "It's in the future, and they're having a talent show." The team creates entire sets, simple but convincing, to help tell their story. "I help build the backgrounds," Cheyenne said. One background he helped create was for the skit's central point - the weight test. The weight test factors in when the main character goes to a gym.
"She's putting on weights and working out," Madison explained. The team's L-shaped structure must be able to hold a certain amount of weight before it fails.
Isabella has taken on a special job. "I work on this one project; we're working on a robot," she explained, describing a cardboard prop that looks like a cousin to "R2-D2" from the "Star Wars" movies. The robot will be a major prop in the main character's bedroom as she gets ready for the talent competition.
Part of the preparation the team goes through is to also ready it for the "Instant Challenge," an on-the-spot challenge the team must overcome. "They just give you a challenge right there," Isabella explained. Madison added that the team has between two and six minutes to improvise their solution and presentation before putting it on. Emily said the Instant Challenge can be anything. "Sometimes you have to build things, sometimes you have to make a story, and sometimes you have to do both," she explained. Some teams have been called upon to write a song, and others have been required to present their solution strictly through miming, with no speaking at all.
Goldfarb thinks the Instant Challenges are her favorite single part of the program. "When you think of everyday life, problems can come up and you have to solve them quickly. I think it's great teaching them these skills at such a young age."
The Benjamin Tasker team has already proven itself to be a remarkable group of young people. They have risen to the top in the state of Maryland, and these kids are readying themselves to compete against teams from the other 50 states and 14 other countries. It will take a great deal of imagination for them to succeed, but imagination does not seem to be something these five students are lacking. "It's such a great program," said Goldfarb, "I really believe in it because it forces our kids to learn to think."
