District 70 DI Teams Place in the Top 20 in the World
Students from two Libertyville Elementary District 70 team involved in an international problem-solving program, Destination Imagination, placed in the top 20 in the world when they represent their schools in the 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 23 separate DI teams to compete in the regional competition with eight of those teams placing in the top three slots to complete on the state level. Two teams compete in the world competition known as the Globals, which held May 23 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn.
The sponsors for all the District 70 teams this year are teachers Kristen Morden and Teresa Crandell, Karen McLean, Analise Deflorio, Danya Sundh, and Ashley Zeinz.
Competing on the Elementary School level for the fine arts Change of Tune challenge was Butterfield School team "DIentific Four." In the challenge, the team created and presented a musical that includes a change in plans. The team placed 14 out of 83 world teams. Members of the team were Bryce Dusault, Alex Brown, Olivia Flayter, and Olivia Steffensen with parent Manager Jessica Brown. The Butterfield team was placed in a lottery to win a spot at Globals and at the end of April that they would compete on a world level.
In the Middle School level for the technical Maze Craze challenge was the Highland Middle School team "Fill In Here." In the challenge, the team designed and built a device to navigate a tournament-provided maze and build a prop that transformed in the maze. The team placed 15th out of 61 world teams. Team members were Chase Houser, Elias Irizi, Noah Scally, Eric Sparks, and Ryan Tanzer with parent Managers Vicky Sparks and Greg Sparks.
"Most of this team has been together since first grade," said veteran parent manager Greg Sparks.
"I know with our own son, he always wanted to follow in his brother's footsteps. His first trip to Globals was at the age of 2 to cheer on his older brother's teams. Eric grew up in DI and now all of the Sparks team's (high school and middle school) are like family. It is a very large group of kids who now treat each other like brothers and sisters. The teams have learned so much. They come up with ideas and then do a lot of the research on YouTube. They have figured out how to build things that I cannot even explain. We are so proud of them and truly enjoy watching them learn new things with all of their DI projects."