Three Lynnfield DI Teams Headed To Global Finals

Lynnfield will be well-represented at this year's Destination Imagination finals in Tennessee, with three teams of students qualified to participate.

This year's global finals are May 22 to 27 at the University of Tennessee. The annual competition draws teams from across the U.S. and from around the world.

To get to this point, the three teams emerged from a regional final on March 17 in Beverly that had 25 teams of Lynnfield students participating, reports Laurie Timmons, the manager of the eighth grade team. From there, the victorious teams went to the state finals in Worcester late last month.

In a Destination Imagination competition, the student teams compete to resolve a specific technical challenge and also typically perform a skit in the process. Timmons reports that her team had a technical challenge creating a piece of equipment capable of moving and transporting parts or products. The students had to devise and assemble parts in a way that could physically support the weight of one team member.

The other teams from the elementary and high school levels are both participating in challenges pertaining to solar energy.

Jen Storer, manager of the elementary school team "Brighter Than The Sun," described how her students had to research solar energy, incorporate what they learned into a skit (in this case the kids wrote a song about it), and then think of a new way to use solar energy. They created a non-working prototype for a solar-powered time machine and worked it into a skit taking place in the highly polluted world of 2060 where they had to use the machine to travel back in time to convince 19th Century British physicist Sir William Crookes to invent a solar turbine. Students work on a budget of about $180 per skit, and the limit applies to donated items as well.

"They really came together this year with their teamwork," said Storer.

Looking ahead, the students are currently engaged in fundraising activities to help defray the cost of their trip. On May 6, the DI teams will be at the Centre Congregational Church from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. selling four different types of hanging plant varieties for $20 a basket. The items are being pre-sold.That May 6 event will sort of be two fundraisers in one, added Storer, since residents will also be able to drop off electronics and other household items for recycling for a modest fee.

Storer also noted that another "flamingo flocking" fundraising activity is in the works where people who donate $20 will be able to have a flock of pink plastic flamingos set up on the front lawn of a friend during the night, where they will stay for 24 hours. Afterward, that homeowner will have the option of having somebody else "flocked" to continue the gag, as well as the fundrasing.