Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010

More than 70 students from Fayette County Public Schools participated in the Destination ImagiNation state tournament hosted by Henry Clay High School, and several teams earned awards.  

The Question Heads, made up of kids from Rosa Parks and Meadowthorpe elementary schools, won first place in the Puppet and Live Art Challenge, in which the main character “flipped” his point of view because he bullied the tooth fairy. The students designed and created all their own props, scenery and costumes, as well as a song about stealing teeth from the tooth fairy. The group – which was recognized for teamwork, creativity and problem-solving ability – will attend the Destination ImagiNation global finals May 25-29 in Knoxville, Tenn.

“It’s not often that you see a group of third- and fourth-grade boys come together and create such a technical set with very creative props. The boys learned how to sew on a sewing machine, painted an enchanted world and created live art with chalk. This was a wonderful experience for them, and you should have seen how much they have grown since the beginning of the year,” said Amanda Naish, one of the team’s managers.

In other highlights, a team of first-graders from Rosa Parks earned a Renaissance Award for the creativity and function of their set design. In their newscast, children went to Venus and found a structure that teleported bouncy balls.

“The children had ownership over their performance and executed it with pride,” said Jonny Lifshitz, a manager of the Green Brains.

The Stonewall Stallions from Stonewall Elementary picked up a first-place trophy as well. This team created a structure out of newspaper and glue that could hold weight. The students also made “sidetrips” from newspaper such as purses, shoes and other props.

In addition, a Bluegrass community team called H2O, which includes students from several area schools, will go to the global finals because of their showing in the Do or D.I. challenge, in which they completed research to create an improvisational performance. 

Athens-Chilesburg Elementary, whose teams competed in the catapult launching and puppet challenges, created plays that taught the audience about bullying and cleaning up and protecting the rainforest.  The school picked up two second-place trophies and a Da Vinci Award for having a unique approach to a solution, for risk taking and for outstanding creativity.

At the March 20 state tournament, themes ranged from a newsroom to Pioneer days and even a shark reef. Each of the challenges offered a different focus such as mathematics, technical design and construction, experimentation, theater arts, social studies, research, story development, architecture, geography, structural engineering and other disciplines that require critical-thinking skills.

• Top results from FCPS