Destination Imagiantion

On Sat., April 13 was the Affiliate Destination Imagination tournament.  Colson and his team, otherwise known as The Sugar MOUSTACHES Playing Halo 4 While Eating Jelly Beans with Bilbo the Tiger! (longest team name ever) chose the science problem this year.  It was called Wind Visible.  They had to build a piece of kinetic art and it had to be set in motion by an Invisible Visitor using wind energy.  They had to do a lot of research on wind energy as part of the problem.  We even took a field trip up to ENREL back in December to help them with their research.  They had to create a performance that was 8 minutes or less involving these three key elements.  And the kids have to do it completely on their own.  They have to come up with the ideas for how to solve the problem, the script has to be written by them, and any props that are made have to made by them.  You name it, they have to do it.  And there can be no interference from parents, siblings, or anyone else or they could be disqualified.  These kids worked so hard and did such a good job.  I had the wonderful opportunity to be the co-manager for Colson's team this year.  It was a fabulous experience, and I hope he'll be willing to do DI again after we move to Georgia.  If he doesn't want to, I know Vivi does. :)

 Here they are at the staging area, all prepped and ready to go!

In the performance, they were all enchanted and lived in an enchanted garden.  Their magic flower that kept them all enchanted (which was the kinetic art piece) had stopped moving, and the enchantment on the garden was going to wear off unless they could get it moving again.

They did so great!

The tournament was up at Auraria Campus, and took ALL DAY!  We got there at 9:00 in the morning and didn't leave until 5:00.  Colson and I would have been there until close to midnight, but we opted not to go to the awards ceremony since Trent was only in town for one day and we needed to get him home to get packed and let him get a good nights rest.

Poor guy.  He was so exhausted after being away all week, he fell asleep on the concrete with just a backpack under his head for 45 minutes.  Reminds of when he was working midnights and going to school at the same time.  He took a lot of naps on that same campus just like this.  Lol!    He was such a good sport to take all the kids down to the tournament so that we could be together as a family all day.  I sure love him.

It was a fun day, and we are so proud of Colson and his team for all of their hard work and the wonderful job they did this year.  Way to go Sugar MOUSTACHES!

DI State Finals

 On April 14, Colson and his team participated in the DI state finals.  They did really well!  There were 24 teams total in their category, and they placed 8th out of the 24.  Not bad at all!  They won't be moving on to Globals in Tennessee, but they all seemed okay with that.  It was a great experience for these kids.

 The moon man.  :)

 The competition took place on Auraria Campus, and we ended up being there pretty much all day.  During breaks in between DI challenges, we spent some time walking around the campus.

 The kids had a great time climbing all the trees.  And I do mean all the trees.  I don't think they missed a single one.

 It was a great way to get all their wiggles out.

 All the munchkins.

Jilly was a really good girl the whole day.  Thank heavens she's pretty easy going.

 

We are so grateful for the wonderful experience this was for Colson.  He really learned a lot.  We are so proud of him and his team mates for all of their hard work.  We are especially grateful for their team manager, Deanna.  She was truly amazing through this whole process and really helped to push the kids to do their best.  Way to go Destination Dominators! :)

Destination Imagination

Colson has been so lucky to be a part of the Destination Imagination team at his school this year.  These kids worked so hard for months to prepare for the tournament.  The tournament was on March 17.  (As per my usual these days, I am very late in blogging about it.)  For their challenge, Colson's team decided to build a structure and golf ball delivery device. 

 Colson's team were called the "Destination Dominators".  (Colson with the golf ball delivery device (GBDD).)

 For the requirements, the kids had to come up with a skit, and in the skit they had to incorporate their structure and GBDD.

 In the skit, Colson was the moon, and he was tired of having to share the night time sky with the stars, so he came up with a device (the GBDD) to get rid of the stars.  Part of the challenge is to see how strong their structure is.  In between putting golf balls into the structure using the GBDD, (there was a taped line that if Colson had crossed while using the GBDD, they would have been disqualified.  No pressure!) two of the kids would add weights to the structure.  Their structure ended up being one of the strongest.  It ended up holding over 175 lbs.!  The kids decided on the design of the structure and built it on their own.  And came up with the skit on their own.  Actually, as parents, we had to sign a contract that we would not interfere in any way or tell the kids what should be done.  If they asked a question, we could guide them, but the idea was for the kids to come up with everything on their own.

 In my opinion, their skit was the best.  They met all of the requirements in incorporating all they were supposed to, and there was tons of humor in it!  Colson is such a ham.  They all did amazing!  After their skit, they went up to the instant challenge room.  The parents weren't allowed to watch the instant challenge.  They did great though!  Colson's team got first place in the instant challenge in their category.  Basically, for the instant challenge, the kids are presented with a problem, and as a team, they have to figure out how to solve it using the materials that are given them.  And all in just a few minutes!

 Later that night, we went to the awards ceremony.  Colson's team got 3rd place in their category out of 14 teams!  Amazing!  Which means they are going to the state tournament, and if they make it in the top 3 or 4 (I can't remember which) they will go to the Global tournament in Tennessee.  They had one little hiccup during the skit, and if they get that fixed, their chances of going to Global are really high since they placed so high in all of their other categories.

Here is Colson with the rest of his team (minus 1) after the awards ceremony.  So excited!  The next tournament is this Saturday.  Can't wait!