A Waupaca Middle School Destination Imagination team will advance to global competition after earning second place in the state tournament.
The Pawesome Four earned second place overall at the middle level and also came in second for their efforts in the instant challenge at the March 24 tournament.
They competed against seven other teams in the Wisconsin DI Affiliate Tournament, at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Pawesome Four eighth-grade team members are Brooke Peterson, Charlotte Buchman, Chloe Eller and Maci Tripp.
Destination Imagination is an international, educational program that encourages innovation, teamwork and creative problem solving. The goal of the program is to inspire and equip students to become the next generation of innovators and leaders.
Each year, DI releases new challenges to specific disciplines, such as technology, science, fine arts, improv theater, structural design or service learning. Each challenge enables student teams to learn and experience the creative process from imagination to innovation.
The WMS team chose the service learning challenge, which requires them to identify a community need, then design and implement a plan to meet that need.
The girls, in cooperation with the Waupaca Learning Center and Waupaca Middle School, organized a supply drive to benefit the Humane Society of Waupaca County.
They held a competition between classrooms to collect the most supplies. The winning classroom was awarded with puppy play time, where the girls brought in two puppies from the humane society for the students to interact with.
As part of their presentation to the judges, the team provided data on all of the items they collected with a display in infographics. They also constructed a container that held all items used in their presentation that revealed their solution.
The girls had eight minutes to perform a theatrical presentation of their project along with a timeline and evaluation.
At the WI State Affiliate tournament, their second place achievement earned them an opportunity to compete at Destination Imagination’s Global Finals.
Global Finals takes place May 23-26, at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. More than 8,000 students from at least 15 countries present their challenge solutions at this event.