Two teams at Roberts Creek Elementary School are sporting gold medals this week after coming in first place at the provincial Destination Imagination competition.
The teams of Grade 3 and 5/6 students had to construct specific models and then present them in a play without any assistance from parents or teachers.
The Grade 5/6 students made a wooden structure in the shape of a chimney measuring four inches in diameter and seven and a half inches high. They created it out of Balsa wood and glue and it weighed only 13.9 grams, but held 220 pounds worth of weight.
They presented the structure in a play about Santa Claus and during the play they incorporated estimations like how many cookies Santa could eat, how many grams those cookies would weigh, and then after eating the cookies, whether or not Santa would fit down the chimney. They also used another structure in the play (as per the conditions of the competition) that was a chair made of wood and held together only with glue. That chair supported the weight of one of the students.
"It was really neat to see what the students had made, and how creative they were in presenting it to the judges," said Maureen McBeth, coordinator of the program at Roberts Creek Elementary School.
The Grade 3 students had to create a play based on cartoon characters and had to have a two-dimensional item change into a three dimensional item during the course of the play.
"They used a large cardboard refrigerator box and laid it flat on the stage, then they unfolded the box and used it to change the grumpy character in the play to a happy character," said McBeth.
The students created their own cartoon characters for the competition as well. All of the characters were items in the bathroom.This is the 15th year students at the school have taken part in the Destination Imagination competition and McBeth says students have brought back so many medals they now expect they will win.
"In the last three years we have had eight first place teams and we went to the world competitions twice," said McBeth.It is optional for schools to take part in Destination Imagination and McBeth says it takes a lot of extra curricular time to prepare.
"We have basically been meeting every Sunday afternoon since January to create the projects," said McBeth.
She notes the reason she puts in the extra effort is the enthusiasm the children have for the competition.
"Every year on the first day of school children are asking me about it," she said.
The two teams that placed first this year now have an opportunity to go to the world competition, but McBeth says the cost to travel there would be about $18,000.
"In the past the parents have worked hard to raise the money but it just costs so much and we only have about a month to raise the funds so we decided not to go this year. Also the Grade 3 students are very young to travel for so long," said McBeth.
But, if they could afford to go, McBeth is confident the Grade 5/6 team would do well.
"We compared their scores to the Grade 10 to 12 division and comparatively they would have came in second in the high school division," said McBeth.
Five other teams from Roberts Creek also traveled to Destination Imagination and came home with two-second place wins, two fourth place positions, and one-sixth-place standing.
