Londonderry Middle School’s Destination Imagination (DI) team placed in the top 10 at the Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn., finishing in ninth place overall.
“It was a lot of fun this year, but this has been the first year we buckled down for DI and it paid off,” Lauren Mullen said.
It was the team’s fourth time competing at the Global Finals, and their coach, Bill O’Connor, said they had hoped to finish in the top third of the 85 teams in their division for the “Creature Feature” Challenge.
“I was thinking, at first when I saw New Hampshire, Londonderry DI (listed in the top 10 on the jumbotron), ‘that can’t be us.’ At first I was really confused. Then we were all jumping up and down, we were acting like we had won first place,” said Sierra Sessa.
“I looked up and I was a little teary eyed – they were tears of happiness. I was screaming and yelling and I called my mom,” said Jillian Fitzgibbons, whose twin brother, Jimmy, is also on the team.
Jimmy Fitzgibbons said teamwork is the key skill that contributed to his team’s success. He also thinks their ability to plan ahead helped them at Globals.
And a twin advantage? Fitzgibbons said because knowing one’s teammates and working well together plays such a vital role in completing DI challenges, he does think competing with his twin sister helps their team.
“We’ve been together since birth and we know what each other is like and how each other works,” he said. “It helps us get along together with the rest of the team, as well.”
The team of eighth graders have been competing together since fourth grade and say their history and friendship have made them a stronger team.
“We’ve learned each other’s’ strengths and weaknesses,” Fitzgibbons said.
“We’ve been together for so long, so were used to doing this and we know what each other is thinking,” Ian Goodspeed agreed.
At the Global Finals, students presented their prepared, technical “Creature Feature” challenge and completed an “Instant Challenge.”
The technical challenge looks for technical design and innovation and requires the team to create a creature that has three “creature features,” and to exhibit those features. The team could define the type of feature they wanted to display technically, according to O’Connor, who has been serving as a DI coach for about 17 years.
For the Creature Feature challenge, the team built a rat that operates like a hovercraft. The group had to make the rat an integral character in a prepared skit, which they accomplished by making the rat talk.
The team’s skit, set in mythological times, tells a story about the god Demeter putting a famine on a community because she wasn’t being adequately worshipped. The rat saves the day.
To make the rat move across the stage, the team used a pump from a blow-up air mattress as part of the lifting system and integrated propeller and model airplane elements found at craft stores for propulsion to move the rat across the floor.
In the Instant Challenge, students were tasked with building tools they could use to thread string through eyelets on either side of a structure.
O’Connor said yard sticks and string were the only materials the students had to complete the challenge of threading the strings through the eyelets in five minutes.
“They got right on it. They discussed their strategy for 30 seconds, then started into it,” he said. “They really know how to do a project as a team. They play off each other’s ideas and solve the challenges. When something comes up, they just come together.”
The team placed third for the Instant Challenge, which O’Connor said helped their overall score and boosted them into the top 10.
O’Connor said his team was energized by the results, and the students agreed they are all looking forward to competing with one another as a high school team next year.
“I was thinking of not doing it next year, but we now have a goal to make it onstage and medal,” Jillian Fitzgibbons said.
“Overall, it’s a really cool experience,” Sessa said of DI. “Everyone should give it a shot. You may think it’s nerdy at first, but once you get involved with it, you’ll realize it’s not a nerdy thing at all. It’s very cool.”
For those who are interested in learning more about DI, contact Christina Baez at South School at mamabaez@live.com; Sarah Anderson at North School at andersonsk94@gmail.com; Stella Skoropowski at Matthew Thornton at sskoropowski@longonderry.org or Mary Coppinger at mcoppinger@londonderry.org; Kristin Mullen at Londonderry Middle School at kristin.mullen1@gmail.com; or Craig Plevinsky at Londonderry High School at craig.plevinsky@phillips.com.