Submitted by Destination Imagination in Bedford
Because of their success in the Massachusetts Destination ImagiNation (MADI) State Finals held at WPI in Worchester on Saturday March 30, four of Bedford’s Destination Imagination (DI) teams will advance to the Global Finals Tournament in Knoxville, TN, from May 22 to May 26.
Teams representing Bedford at Destination Imagination Globals will be The Ninja Sombreros from Lane School; the Technicolor Panda Stars and the Mirror Monsters from John Glenn Middle School; and the Water Droplets from Bedford High School.
In all, this year’s Bedford’s Destination Imagination program fielded a total of 20 teams, with 121 participants. Six of the teams: two from Lane School, three from John Glenn Middle School (JGMS), and one from Bedford High School (BHS) qualified for the state final after the Region 4 and Region 8 tournaments held in March.
A pair of Lane School teams competed in the State Finals
- POISSNN A+ performed the Project Outreach challenge “Real to Reel”. This challenge is community service-based and focused teams on identifying and addressing a real community need. Acting as the project managers, participants use local resources to conduct a worthy community project. They then present at the DI tournament an entertaining and informative performance that includes a movie, press conference and project review. This third grade team includes members Nikhil Bahadur, Shrey Bahadur, Owen Goss, Pranav Kaundinya, Niles J. Liu, Ittai Weisman and Andy Zhou. Their project focus was to make Lane School healthier, germ-free and more kid-friendly. They worked with Mr. Ackerman, their principle, to design and implement bathroom cleanliness, improve way-finding by adding school maps & Spanish signs, and healthy kid programs in the school. They presented an 8-minute movie about their project, developed with mentorship from Greg Dolan of Bedford TV. Greg taught the team about movie making and editing techniques. POISNN A+ won first place in the Destination Imagination Region 8 tournament and went on to participate in the State Tournament. At the State finals, they competed against 9 other teams from Massachusetts, most of which were made up of 4th and 5th grade students. Their presentation was judged informative and very entertaining. They placed 3rd in the Central Challenge, representing a fantastic achievement against several other older and more experienced teams. The Bedford DI organization is exceptionally proud of their accomplishments. One Middle school team also performed Project Outreach but had 2 Lane School students represented on that team, Michael Bossi and Kai Chun (more on that below).
- The Ninja Sombreros were represented by Joseph Girifalco, Thomas Griffin, Nicole Hebert, Aneesha Manne, Ashley Tonini, and Jackson Warhover. This team won Challenge A, “In The Zone”. This task was a technical challenge. The team designed and built small vehicles with three different power sources to reach a distant small target, while also presenting a story about the dangers faced by vehicles. Points were assigned for This team placed first and was part of a 3 level, 3 team sweep of Challenge A. This is the first time Bedford has ever swept a challenge. The Ninja Sombreros will represent all Bedford DI teams from Lane School at the DI Global Finals Tournament.
The three John Glenn Middle School teams
- The Power Busters, a Project Outreach team that focused on power consumption at JGMS and how it relates to town energy guidelines. This team included students Alexa Francesconi, Evan Graf, Eleanor Lowen, and Ryan Richard from JGMS as well as Michael Bossi, and Kai Chun, from the Lane School. The Power Busters, comprised of 5th and 6th graders, faced several very experienced 8th grade teams at the state level and placed second in the Instant Challenge and placed 3rd overall beating nearly all of the 8th grade teams. Their accomplishment is a shining example of the spirit of DI and what a team can accomplish with extraordinary effort and teamwork. This same team won the Renaissance award in 2012 and placed in the TOP 10 at Global Finals in 2011.
- The Technicolor Panda Stars, performed Challenge A, “In the Zone”, and was comprised of Michael Chen, Nikhil Malrani, Jared Rennich, Vinayak Sharma and Calvin Thomas. They outperformed every other Middle Level team in the Instant Challenge and became the second of three Bedford teams to win Challenge A.
- The Mirror Monsters presented their solution to challenge E, “Twist-O-Rama”. This is a structural engineering challenge in which the team had to build a structure that could withstand the placement of proportionally significant weight on top while periodically subjecting the structure to torque. In addition, they were required to present a story integrated with the engineering which was to have a surprise twist at the end. This team is represented by Jacob Bossi, Da-Jin Chu, Eamon Garrity , Ethan Graf, Ben Oleksinski, and Michael Richard. The Mirror Monsters team’s solution was also distinguished by receiving the Renaissance Award for outstanding engineering design and/or performance. The team has 5 State championships to their credit and returns to Global finals for the 6th time. This team won Global Finals in 2010 for Breaking DI News.
Bedford High School’s state tournament team:
- The Water Droplets, presented their solution in Challenge A “Secondary Level”. The team members were Michael Barkan, Victor Chen, Christopher En, Karthik Sharma, Vishnu Varada, and Bryan Werth. They designed and built small vehicles with three different power sources to reach a distant small target. The team accepted a risky danger points option, got all 10 of their vehicles to their target, and earned maximum possible points, placing first in their division. Their first place performance completed Bedford’s first ever sweep of a challenge with all 3 levels (Entry, Middle and Secondary) being won by Bedford teams. Their elegant solution for the Central Challenge as well as a first place showing in Instant Challenge secured their forth return to Global finals. This team has won multiple special awards in the past as well as Global Finals for Direct Deposit in 2010. At this year’s Region 4 tournament, the team won a Renaissance Award for their outstanding design of their vehicle launch system, which allowed for precise placement of all their vehicles into the targeted high score zone.”
Other BHS teams at the State Finals
The BHS team comprised of Abby Bosco, Juliette Gale, Gabrielle Griffiths, Jessica Kidd, Katie Linnehan, Gwendolyn Orav, and Nicole Powell won the Sprit of DI award for outstanding composure during the teams region 4 presentation of their solution to Challenge B. This challenge is scientific and research based. This year the team needed to apply the principal of wind energy and kinetics and had to design artwork that transformed. They also needed to create and present an original story that features an “invisible visitor” and integrate their wind energy research into their presentation. One of the lessons of DI that kids learn is not always do plans work out as expected. This team held it all together under extenuating circumstances and displayed to the appraisers and audience the true meaning of grace under pressure
Also of note, the BHS team of Alex Jarvis, Shea Kuhl, Charlotte Gale, Maria Linnehan, and Melissa Landman graduate this year after 6 appearances at Global finals. This year this team presented their solution to Challenge B, Wind Visible at the region 4 tournament held at Chelmsford High School. Maria Linnehan was recognized at the MADI State finals for her 13 years of DI participation.
In addition, Laurel Barkan was awarded a MADI scholarship. Laurel was a DI participant as a former DI team member and has been a challenge appraiser for the past 3 years.
Davis School Teams
Four teams from Davis School participated in DI this year. Rising Stars is a non competitive, entry level DI program for kids in grades K-2. This year’s challenge was Roy G Biv and encouraged the participants to learn about the colors of the rainbow and to present a presentation about Roy’s birthday party. These teams presented their solution at the regional tournament and receive positive feedback and other recognition. One Rising Star team from Bedford this year won the Spirit of DI award. This award is given to teams that display exceptional spirit, teamwork, volunteerism and sportsmanship. Teams that receive this award generally display spirit and sportsmanship beyond their years.
The team of Wynn Sheridan, Hunter Fan-Chan was the first of two Bedford teams to receive the Spirit of DI award this year. This former team of 7, through attrition, ended up as a team of 2 and despite the loss of participants decided to solve their challenge and present. The appraisers were impressed at all they accomplished by the two team members.
The Bedford students that participated in DI in 2012-2013 are: Maxwell Adam, Gabe Alper, Max Alper, Shrey Bahadur, Michael Barkan, Caleb Barnes, Zoe Bauer, Annie Bernstein, Mia Bernstein, Bharat Bogelli, Abby Bosco, Jacob Bossi, Michael Bossi, Andrew Caron, Jaden Celentano, Azure Celentano, Kevin Chen, Catherine Chen, Victor Chen, Michael Chen, Philip Cho, Da-Jin Chu, Koa Chun, Kai Chun, Matthew Colasnte, Andrew Cook, Brendan Coyne, Taline Dawson, Tommy Desjardin, Danielle Digangi, Alex Doherty, Douglas Dussault, Zoe Ellen, Christopher En, Olivia Erwich, Aram Eskandarian, Hunter Fan-Chan, Kyle Fan-Chan, Toby Favalora, Isabella Fernald, Alexa Francesconi, Charlotte Gale, Juliette Gale, Declan Garriety, Eamon Garrity, Olivia Gedaminsky, Narineh Gevorhian, Tsoline Gevorkian, Joseph Girifalco, Brandon Gordon, Owen Goss, Evan Graf, Ethan Graf, Thomas Griffin, Amelia Griffin, Gabrielle Griffiths, Nicole Hebert, Hunter Jarvis, Alex Jarvis, Pranav Kaundinya, Jessica Kidd, Peter King , Zoe Kramer, Shea Kuhl, Sahana Kumar, Anirudh Kumar, Melissa Landman, Justin Liberman, Ben Linatser, Maria Linnehan, Katie Linnehan, Niles Liu, Eleanor Lowen, Nikhil Malrani, Aneesha Manne, Rohan Manne, Alex Marino, Kyle McGinn, Chloe Melvin, Ellie+A124 Mitchell, Taylor Moore, Alexander Natalizio, Ben Oleksinski, Gwendolyn Orav, Adrinan Pangiotou, Riya Patel, Preet Patel, Jordan Perzel Mandell, Nicole Powell, Rica Ray, Xander Recca, Jared Rennich, Michael Richard, Ryan Richard, Alex Rupp, Jared Rushanan, Isabella Santiago, Lucy Santiago, Vinayak Sharma, Karthik Sharma, Wynn Sheridan, James Staknis, Ryan Stebe, Jane Stewart, Ishaan Sud, Calvin Thomas, Ashley Tonini, Sarah Tonini, Vishnu Varada, Mihir Vaze, Ava Venuti, Kelly Warhover, Jackson Warhover, Ethan Washington , Ittai Weisman, Bryan Werth, Sarah Wirth, Joshua Young, Andy Zhou and Emily Zhu
About Destination ImagiNation
Destination ImagiNation is an educational and creative problem solving program that encourages teams of learners to have fun, take risks, focus, and frame challenges while incorporating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the arts, and service learning. Participants learn patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the collaborative problem solving process. Teams showcase their solutions at a tournament.
Participants gain more than just basic knowledge and skills—they learn to unleash their imagination and take unique approaches to problem-solving.
Bedford DI (www.bedforddi.net) is administrated by Bedford Creativity Inc., [501(c)3 pending], and supported in part by the Bedford Public School System, The Rotary Club of Bedford and the Millipore Foundation.
Sign-up for Destination Imagination begins each September and culminates with competitive performances in March (Regional and States) and May (Global Finals). Teams of up to seven students meet with their coaches once a week to select and execute from the current year’s challenge options, developed by the Destination Imagination global organization (www.idodi.org).
Contact [email protected] for more information.
Communication prepared by Steve Kramer, Publicity Manager Bedford MADI. Questions to be addressed by ([email protected]) or Stephen Bossi, President, Bedford Creativity Inc. (Phone 781-271- 0528)
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