Libertyville Elementary District 70 School Di Team Places Fourth In The World

A Libertyville Elementary District 70 team involved in an international problem-solving program, Destination Imagination, placed fourth in the world during a recent global competition.

Destination Imagination challenges students in problem solving techniques. This year, students from Adler Park, Butterfield, Copeland Manor, Rockland and Highland Middle made up DI teams to compete on the regional level, moving onto the state competition and then three teams reaching the global competition May 25-28 in Knoxville, Tenn.

The sponsors for all the District 70 teams this year were teachers Julie Jermakowicz, Kristin Morden, Karen McLean, Analiese Deflorio, Danya Sundh, and Ashley Zeinz.

In the Pace of Change technical challenge, teams needed to design and build a vehicle to carry at least one team member across the presentation site multiple times, change how that vehicle's propulsions and movement method during the performance, and tell a story that involves change for a character.

Adler Park School's Imagination Dragons placed fourth in the world on the elementary school level for Pace of Change. Team members included Maggie Forkner, Chase Houser, Jack Oswald, Hannah Romie, Eric Sparks, Ryan Tanzer, The team manager is Greg Sparks. The team also received "The Renaissance Award" for their creativity and ingenuity at the Global tournament.

Tying for eighth place in the world on the elementary school level in The Meme Event was Butterfield School's Seven Helping Hero's with a community project to save Lake Minear. Seven Helping Heroes team members were Brenna Hornsey, Luke Kallieris, Molly Koch, Owen McGrory, Mike Shanahan, Jake Stilling and Izzy Tepper. The team managers were Jen Kallieris and Amy Stilling. The challenge is a outreach project to address a community need, and includes carrying out an event to help the need, and creating an effective meme to help meet the project goals.

Tying for 24th place was Butterfield School's Two More Minutes, Please, competing in the Elementary Level in the improvisational Close Encounters challenge. Team members included Berlowski, Maeve Devaney, Delaney Rogers, Kira Rudersdorf, Izzy Rudolphi, and Julian Timm. The team managers were Eileen and Dan Timm. In the challenge, the team had to create and perform a presentation in a confined space, show how characters work together to address a news flash and integrate a mysterious strange and prop into the skit.