Imaginations put to the test in competition at Thurston school
Elementary and middle school students from across Orange and San Diego counties — including Laguna Beach — got a mental workout during a competition Saturday on the Thurston Middle School campus.
The teams, moving from classroom to classroom, tackled challenges that tested skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, time management and creativity.
The event was organized by Destination Imagination, a nonprofit educational company that conducts competitions nationwide focusing on risk-taking while incorporating elements of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the arts.
Saturday’s event, which drew about 350 students, required teams to complete challenges in five to eight minutes. It served as practice for the regional competition scheduled for Feb. 21 at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon. Groups did not know the particular exercise awaiting them until they walked into a room.
In one room, Thurston students were given a pencil, Styrofoam cup, two marshmallows, a piece of paper, and card stock and asked to build a ramp for ping-pong balls to roll down and into a bucket sitting on the ground.
An added hurdle: Students couldn’t use their hands to pick up the ball.
The Thurston team of Grace Wilson, Carmen O’Connor, Sophia Hussman and Claire Tigner — all sixth graders — stuck the pencil through the side of the cup to make it easier to scoop up the ball and, for the ramp, folded the paper like an accordion to create a funnel for the ping-pong balls. The goal was to get 10 balls into the bucket.
Their design worked.
The teams began meeting to practice last fall, either during lunch or after school, said Ina Wu, an eighth-grade Thurston science teacher who oversaw Saturday’s event.
“I’ve learned a lot about teamwork and trust,” said Sophia, 12.
Another challenge had a team of Top of the World fifth-graders using only body movements to guide their partners in connecting plastic pipes together into a specific design.
The top-scoring teams at the regional tournament will advance to the state competition with hopes of eventually reaching the global finals in May in Knoxville, Tenn.