Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Destination Imagination

What do Godzilla, a hula hoop and bubble wrap have in common? These items were among the elements that combined to get four McRae Middle School students off to a global competition. Its called Destination Imagination and its a worldwide effort aimed at getting the creative juices flowing.

The McRae students involved in the event are Jeremy Ward, Alex Ross, Robby Higginbotham and Hannah Wiley. Students are challenged to answer an open-ended question as creatively as possible. There are established parameters used to judge the students work. For example, the end result must have some technical element indicating an understanding of physics, mechanics or chemistry.

The four McRae students chose to answer the challenge, Howd that happen? They set their answer in Japan and created a skit that called for Robby to don a hat which transported him to Japan. There he became a Sumo wrestler and thats where the hula hoop came in - the method by which the students made Robby fat enough to be taken for a wrestler.

What happened next was inspired by old monster movies. Alexs mother and the groups director, Holly Ross, said the four watched most of 11 Godzilla movies. And you can get pretty tired of Godzilla movies, she said.

Godzilla is played by Hannah, in a costume made partly of bubble wrap and breathing fire created with dry ice and a series of tubing.

The McRae students won their regional competition, even gaining the DaVinci Award for outstanding technical presentation. The next challenge facing Destination Imagination is a trip to Knoxville, Tenn., for the global competition.

And what can this group possibly do to improve on the regional performance? Jeremy was quick to answer that question.

We dont know, but well think of something.