17 WICOMICO DESTINATION IMAGINATION (DI) TEAMS ADVANCE TO STATE TOURNAMENT

Wicomico County Destination Imagination teams performed well at the Eastern Region DI Tournament at Salisbury Middle School on Sat., March 21, with 17 of Wicomico’s 34 competition teams qualifying to compete at the Maryland State DI Tournament on Sat., April 18 at University of Maryland, Baltimore County in Catonsville.

The following teams advanced to the Maryland DI State Tournament:
 
1st place
Pemberton Elementary Mega    Master Minds
North Salisbury School             Feary Flames
Westside Intermediate               Funky Monkeys
Bennett Middle School             Improv Waves
Bennett Middle School             Daydreamerz
Salisbury Middle School          Thunder Thinkers
Wicomico Middle School         Glazed and Confused
Wicomico Middle School         Uncommon DInominators
Parkside High School               inDIcisive

2nd place
North Salisbury School                  SiFi Super Stars
North Salisbury School                  Ninja Fishies
Westside Intermediate                    Sassy Sisters
Bennett Middle School                  Imaginators
Bennett Middle School                  Primetime DI Funguys
Salisbury Middle                           DI-scoverers
James M. Bennett High School    Not You

3rd place
Wicomico Middle School             EverDIne

Tournament results are posted online at http://www.marylanddi.org/regions/eastern/. Scroll down to Documents and click on the Eastern Tournament 2015 results attachment.

Earning a special award at the Eastern Region Tournament was the North Salisbury School Legendary Llamas DI team. The team earned the Spirit of DI Award forExceptional Spirit, Teamwork, Volunteerism and Sportsmanship.

DI transcends race, gender, and ethnic boundaries to encourage cooperation and productive problem solving in all children. DI is not so much a program as a process. DI has helped teams learn what we must all learn in life:

• to work cooperatively in teams
• to push the limit of their imaginations
• to learn new skills and creative problem solving tools

This program is a source of pride for our school system, made possible because of the continued support of instructional leaders and facilitators in each school. School facilitators support students in school DI clubs as well as tournament teams and their parent Team Managers. These school facilitators are a key part of the DI success story for Wicomico County Public Schools, said Susan Bounds, DI coordinator.

A total of 40 teams from Wicomico Schools participated in the tournament, including six Rising Stars teams from primary grades. (Rising Stars teams present their challenge solutions for feedback but not a score, and do not continue beyond the regional tournament.) Regardless of age or grade level, however, each team exhibited exhibited teamwork skills and applied its skills and talents not only to better its competition performance, but to better each individual team member. The 6 competitive team challenges from which teams may choose each year are:

• Challenge A: Technical / Mechanical
• Challenge B: Science / Theater Arts
• Challenge C: Theater Arts / Fine Arts
• Challenge D: Improvisation / Theater Arts
• Challenge E: Structural / Architectural Design
• Project Outreach: Service Learning Challenge