LIMESTONE, Maine — Two Destination Imagination (DI) teams from the Limestone Community School are headed to Knoxville, Tenn. next week to compete in DI Nationals. “We leave on the 19th around 6 a.m, and we arrive in Tennessee at 7:40 p.m.” explained elementary-level DI coach at Limestone Alva King. “Once we land in Nashville, we have a three and a half-hour drive on the bus from Nashville to Knoxville. Then, we have an hour and a half registration at a big hall on the University of Tennessee’s campus, where there will be many people like us; I’ve never gotten out [of registration] before midnight, but they feed our children pizza,” King jested regarding a long day of travel with 13 students.
“[At DI Nationals,] there’s a grand opening with 15,000-plus students and their families and their coaches filling an arena,” King said. “It’s more like the Olympics than anything I’ve seen; the kids parade in carrying banners from their countries or flags from their state. We usually have a state of Maine flag and small delegation. I think we’re up to nine or ten foreign countries competing, but we’re concerned and confused as to whether or not they’re coming,” she explained. “Many of [the other countries] are South American countries, and because of the scariness of this pandemic, some may have opted not to come.”
“There are seven students on the elementary-level team, and six students at the middle-level,” explained DI middle-level coach Pat Allen.
“There are only two guys from Limestone,” interjected middle-level DI team member Jonathan Stockton, whose favorite part of participating in DI is a toss up between creating a giant whale tail and the long bus rides.
“It will be a competition of us and about fifty to seventy teams,” King explained. “We have no idea how many teams there are going to be or how popular a particular problem is. At our state finals, we found a lot of competition, so that’s usually an indicator.”
“Each team individually forms an answer to the same problem, and then they’re judged and the scores are put against each other,” explained Allen. “[Teams] prepare ahead of time and create a solution to and then compete against the other schools who have chosen the same problem. [Teams are judged] on our solutions and that’s how we get placed,” she clarified. “The other part [of competition] is the instant challenge, which no one gets to see. The students go behind closed doors with the judges; they’re sworn to secrecy; they can’t tell anybody what the questions were.”
“Until afterwards, when everyone else is done, or else they could give another team an indicator that you didn’t have and then they’d have a definite advantage,” King said.
The elementary-level DI team chose the ViDIo Lit Hits challenge, where they created a music video to Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night.’
“They chose an old public domain “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” tune, updated it a little, and wrote lyrics that explain Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night,’ which they finally settled upon because it was full of comedy, full of things that kids in fifth grade think are really funny, like boys and girls and guys and gals falling in love with the wrong people and then going to jail and doing all that,” she added. “They enjoyed the play, but they also had to do a piece of choreography. Both teams did a lot of art and arts and crafts skills types of things,” King said, who affectionately refers to her team as the ‘cardboard kids,’ based on the numerous props that they made.
The middle-level DI team chose the challenge Instinct Messaging, where they have to demonstrate communication between animals.
“We did about four hours’ of research just coming up with the animals,” explained middle-level DI team member Sierra Deschaine.
“Eventually, we settled on the polar bear,” said middle-level DI team member Johnathan Stokeon.
“For the elementary-level students, it’s a 6-minute play,” King explained. “For the middle-level, it’s an 8-minute play; they work for six months on it and eight minutes and six minutes is all they get to show,” she added.
What makes the six months spent working out details more significant is the fact that the students did everything on their own.
“Adults aren’t allowed to interfere at all,” Allen explained.
“If we need outside help, it’s from the kids,” said Deschaine. “If a parent says ‘why don’t you make your costume this color’ and someone finds out, they would get disqualified.”
“It’s called interference, and it’s a very big deal,” King said, “teams can lose a lot of points.”
“This is the longest season of any co-curricular known to man, I think,” added King, “and we start late. Some schools started [preparing for this competition] last August.”
Middle-level students at Limestone started preparing in December, while elementary-level students started in January.
Though it’s a long process, it gives students an opportunity to utilize various skills.
“We used math in creating a two-point perspective piece of art, helping with our budget, and counting yards,” Deschaine explained.
Stockton commented that he learned how to sew.
Working together for months, the students also utilized cooperation.
“When there are conflicting opinions, we have everyone say their opinion and then we agree on someone’s opinion,” Deschaine explained. “Whoever’s opinion gets the most votes, we try that, if it doesn’t work, we go with the next person’s idea.”
The student’s props, previously mailed to Tennessee, will be waiting for them when they get there.
The elementary-level and middle-level Destination Imagination teams will remain in Tennessee until May 24.
“[At DI Nationals,] there’s a grand opening with 15,000-plus students and their families and their coaches filling an arena,” King said. “It’s more like the Olympics than anything I’ve seen; the kids parade in carrying banners from their countries or flags from their state. We usually have a state of Maine flag and small delegation. I think we’re up to nine or ten foreign countries competing, but we’re concerned and confused as to whether or not they’re coming,” she explained. “Many of [the other countries] are South American countries, and because of the scariness of this pandemic, some may have opted not to come.”
“There are seven students on the elementary-level team, and six students at the middle-level,” explained DI middle-level coach Pat Allen.
“There are only two guys from Limestone,” interjected middle-level DI team member Jonathan Stockton, whose favorite part of participating in DI is a toss up between creating a giant whale tail and the long bus rides.
“It will be a competition of us and about fifty to seventy teams,” King explained. “We have no idea how many teams there are going to be or how popular a particular problem is. At our state finals, we found a lot of competition, so that’s usually an indicator.”
“Each team individually forms an answer to the same problem, and then they’re judged and the scores are put against each other,” explained Allen. “[Teams] prepare ahead of time and create a solution to and then compete against the other schools who have chosen the same problem. [Teams are judged] on our solutions and that’s how we get placed,” she clarified. “The other part [of competition] is the instant challenge, which no one gets to see. The students go behind closed doors with the judges; they’re sworn to secrecy; they can’t tell anybody what the questions were.”
“Until afterwards, when everyone else is done, or else they could give another team an indicator that you didn’t have and then they’d have a definite advantage,” King said.
The elementary-level DI team chose the ViDIo Lit Hits challenge, where they created a music video to Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night.’
“They chose an old public domain “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” tune, updated it a little, and wrote lyrics that explain Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night,’ which they finally settled upon because it was full of comedy, full of things that kids in fifth grade think are really funny, like boys and girls and guys and gals falling in love with the wrong people and then going to jail and doing all that,” she added. “They enjoyed the play, but they also had to do a piece of choreography. Both teams did a lot of art and arts and crafts skills types of things,” King said, who affectionately refers to her team as the ‘cardboard kids,’ based on the numerous props that they made.
The middle-level DI team chose the challenge Instinct Messaging, where they have to demonstrate communication between animals.
“We did about four hours’ of research just coming up with the animals,” explained middle-level DI team member Sierra Deschaine.
“Eventually, we settled on the polar bear,” said middle-level DI team member Johnathan Stokeon.
“For the elementary-level students, it’s a 6-minute play,” King explained. “For the middle-level, it’s an 8-minute play; they work for six months on it and eight minutes and six minutes is all they get to show,” she added.
What makes the six months spent working out details more significant is the fact that the students did everything on their own.
“Adults aren’t allowed to interfere at all,” Allen explained.
“If we need outside help, it’s from the kids,” said Deschaine. “If a parent says ‘why don’t you make your costume this color’ and someone finds out, they would get disqualified.”
“It’s called interference, and it’s a very big deal,” King said, “teams can lose a lot of points.”
“This is the longest season of any co-curricular known to man, I think,” added King, “and we start late. Some schools started [preparing for this competition] last August.”
Middle-level students at Limestone started preparing in December, while elementary-level students started in January.
Though it’s a long process, it gives students an opportunity to utilize various skills.
“We used math in creating a two-point perspective piece of art, helping with our budget, and counting yards,” Deschaine explained.
Stockton commented that he learned how to sew.
Working together for months, the students also utilized cooperation.
“When there are conflicting opinions, we have everyone say their opinion and then we agree on someone’s opinion,” Deschaine explained. “Whoever’s opinion gets the most votes, we try that, if it doesn’t work, we go with the next person’s idea.”
The student’s props, previously mailed to Tennessee, will be waiting for them when they get there.
The elementary-level and middle-level Destination Imagination teams will remain in Tennessee until May 24.
