Five teams from Irving ISD are advancing to the 2023 Destination Imagination Lone Star Finals State Tournament following a strong performance at the regional competition last weekend. In addition, two students from Nimitz High School – Angelie Ramirez and Reymundo Gomez – were recognized with the Magellan Award. This award is presented to students who completed challenges in all six competitive areas of Destination Imagination.

Congratulations to the following teams who advanced to the state competition.

Gilbert Elementary School

  • Crazy Gummy Bears – Flip the Script: Maddyn Waugh, Steven Garcia, Emiliano Portillo, Karina Salmeron, Alicia Villasenor, Zoe Medel-Fore, Jillian Allred

Nimitz High School

  • Nerdy Bird Trio – Showdown: Erick Ramirez, Justin Aguilar, Naima Rodriguez
  • The Flock – High Stakes: Justin Aguilar, Bryant Newsome, Vincent Perez, Zoe Carranza, Erick Ramirez, Alyssa Gonzalez, Naima Rodriguez

Singley Academy

  • The Spectacular Spectacles – Extreme Challenge: Sneha Shrestha, Mason Keojampa, Sonnia Evbota-Momodu, Gabriel Esqueda, Ash Guzman, Cody Leon
  • Undecided – Extreme Challenge: Tyler Perry, Anna Pierucci, Aaron Parada, Stephane Tatchim-Kouam, Ana Plaza 

Destination Imagination is an educational non-profit focused on five values: collaboration, respect, stewardship, perseverance and integrity. Teams compete in challenges for the following categories:

  • Technical – Piece by Piece – Students design and create a puzzle that will be assembled during the presentation. The team will also need to create a story about how a character’s understanding changes at a pivotal moment.
  • Engineering – Thrill Ride – Students design and build a roller coaster that will be assembled and tested during the presentation. As part of their presentation, the team must demonstrate what riders would experience when riding the roller coaster.
  • Scientific – Far-Fetched – Students present a team-created story in the style of a tall tale including an exaggerated character with a hyperbolic trait. The team must then be prepared to present a scientific analysis to determine whether or not the exaggerated character could actually exhibit the hyperbolic trait as described in the tall tale.
  • Fine Arts – Flip the Script – Students create and present a flipped tale that is inspired by a well-known story but focuses on a new main character. The team must also design and build a piece of scenery that goes through a scenery flip.
  • Improvisational – Showdown – Students create and present an improvisational skit about an underdog preparing for and/or participating in a competition. The team is encouraged to enhance the skit with trash bags and rubber bands.
  • Service Learning – High Stakes – Students identify, design, carry out and evaluate a project that addresses a need in a real community. The team must also create and present a suspenseful story about a high-stakes situation.
  • Early Learning – Play On – Students create and present a play about a group of friends going on a fantastic adventure together. The play must include a musical character and teams are asked to create musical instruments to perform a song.
  • Instant Challenge – Teams must be able to think on their feet by applying appropriate skills to produce a solution in a short period of time. Instant Challenges are performance-based, task-based or a combination of the two. Although each Instant Challenge has different requirements, all Instant Challenges reward teams for their teamwork. Instant Challenges are kept confidential until it is time for teams to solve them.

 Congratulations and best of luck to the Irving ISD state qualifiers!