Londonderry High School has two Destination Imagination (DI) teams that advanced at the State Finals competition to the Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn., The Global Finals take place May 25-28.
The high school’s Improv team, “Five Guys, with Some Exceptions,” and its Technical Challenge team will join a university level team of Londonderry graduates from the Class of 2013 at Global Finals from May 25-28.
The Five Guys Improv team also earned a DI Renaissance Award for engineering, design and performance of their “instant challenge” portion of the State Finals tournament on April 2.
Destination Imagination is a competition that challenges students in a variety of tasks, testing a wide range of skills. Scoring is based on each team’s performance of an instant challenge, which is assigned on the spot during competition, as well as their presentation of a challenge prepared beforehand.
Each of the teams’ prepared challenges is performed in front of an audience, while the instant challenge is completed in private. Teams are not allowed to talk about their instant challenge to anyone except one another and their team manager until after Global Finals.
High scores are awarded to teams that find the most creative solutions to a problem.
Matthew Thornton Elementary School’s elementary Project Outreach team finished fifth at the State Finals with its campaign to raise awareness for helmet safety and pursue a New Hampshire law that would require motorcyclists to wear helmets (see related story above). The students held a community event at St. Jude Parish in advance of the State Finals, at which they performed a skit to promote their campaign.
Members of the fourth grade team include Jake Perron, Myleigh Brennan, Dylan Dempkoski, William Buckley, Alec St. Hilaire, Ethan Munro and Quinton Delorey.
Londonderry High School’s Technical Challenge team was tasked with building a vehicle with two different propulsion systems and two different methods of movement.
The team’s vehicle moved on skis as part of one propulsion system, rather than wheels, according to Jimmy Fitzgibbons, a freshman who has been competing with the team for many years.
“We developed the system little by little. We started off with something very odd. It was more of a crawling machine. Then we switched to sliding with the skis we attached to the vehicle and drill-powered wheels,” he said.
Members of the Technical Challenge team include Fitzgibbons, Jillian Fitzgibbons, Ian Goodspeed, Hannah Brown and Gillian Lynch.
The high school’s Improv team was challenged with performing a four-minute improvisational presentation within a confined space, showing how characters work together to address a news flash and integrating a mysterious stranger and a team-created miscellaneous prop.
In competition, students have only three minutes to prepare after learning which space they are required to perform in and what their newsflash is.
In the State Finals, the team’s performance took place in the crew quarters of the international space station.
“Our other element was a newsflash about how a time capsule had been opened on earth and the contents surprised people,” LHS junior Julia Fitzgibbons said.
As they look forward to Global Finals, Fitzgibbons said her team will continue to research the 12 places they may be assigned to include in their skits and improve on their prop.
Improv team member Trevor Melanson said they will also continue to hone their improvisational skills.
“We flow well together. Most of us have known each other for several years,” he said.
Melanson and Fitzgibbons are also members of the high school’s Improv Club.
Members of the high school’s Five Guys Improv Team are Evan Plevinsky, Duncan Campbell, Fitzgibbons and Melanson.
Fitzgibbons said the most valuable skills she has learned through DI are related to collaborating with others.
“I’ve learned so much through DI. Teamwork is one of the biggest things – how to work with people and listen to people’s ideas, and how to use what you’re given and have the best possible outcome. Those things have led me so far in DI and in school,” Fitzgibbons said.
“I have learned to adapt to different situations,” said Melanson, who has experienced DI Global Finals, but not in competition with his own team.
“I’m looking forward to meeting all the people there,” he said. “It’s such an enjoyable time.”