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Haldane Wins Bronze Medal at Destination Imagination World Championships
Team of third- to fifth- grade girls comes 3rd out of 61 teams from around the world
 | | At the Championship competition in Knoxville are team members (l-r) Grace Carroll, Julia Olsen, Megan Scali, Claire Carroll, Michelle McEwen and Tess Foster |
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photos by Marie Wieck
Haldane's Elementary Team won Bronze Medals at the Destination Imagination World Championships, called "Global Finals", in Knoxville, TN on Saturday, May 26. The team comprised of Julia Olsen, Tess Foster, Michelle McEwen, Claire Carroll, Grace Carroll, all of Cold Spring, and Megan Scali of Garrison competed in the creative problem solving competition against 61 other teams from around the world. Coaches Terese Olsen and Seamus Carroll were ecstatic with their team's outstanding performance. The team received their bronze medals before a stadium of 19,000 competitors, coaches, supporters and officials from 14 countries. The ceremony was broadcast live via the internet around the world.
The students were given a complicated problem called "Direct Flight" in October and worked for 5 - 10 hours per week for almost nine months to develop and execute a solution to the complex challenge without any adult assistance. In Direct Flight, the students were required to design and build aircraft and launching devices. The aircraft had to be elevated and launched with minimal human intervention from randomly selected launching points, complete a stunt while airborne and land in a 2.5 x 2.5 foot landing area to achieve the maximum score. Additional points were awarded for keeping the aircraft aloft for over five seconds and using a paper plane built during the 8-minute competition. The team was also required to perform a skit during the flights. The Destination Imagination organizers commented repeatedly that this was the most difficult challenge ever offered in the annual competition. Over the past year, over 16,000 elementary students on 2,400 teams around the world attempted to solve the Direct Flight problem for Destination Imagination. Haldane was the only elementary, middle school or high school team from New York State to place in the Global Finals competition.
 | | Pictured, left to right: Coach Terese Olsen, Megan Scali, Claire Carroll, Tess Foster, Michelle McEwen, Grace Carroll, Julia Olsen, Coach Seamus Carroll |
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In addition to the Direct Flight Challenge, the team was also given an "Instant Challenge" that they had never seen before. The team had seven minutes to solve the problem, build the solution and present it to the judges. They were given various stationary items such as paper clips, pencils and mailing labels and asked to build a hanging structure to hold ten marbles that could not touch each other. The team attacked the problem and successfully completed it within the allotted time.
 | | Pictured, left to right: Tess Foster, Claire Carroll, Megan Scali, Julia Olsen, Grace Carroll, Michelle McEwen. |
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Destination Imagination is the world's largest non-profit, volunteer-driven organization devoted to helping kids gain practical life skills through interesting, entertaining and mind-boggling challenges. The community and school-based program begins in August/ September when the year's Challenges are issued. Teams of five to seven students organize, choose their challenge and work for months honing their solution. Volunteer team managers (parents, teachers or community volunteers) facilitate the group, but cannot give technical or other assistance. Teams compete locally in regional competitions, with winners advancing to the State Championships. Winners at the state and country level advance to the Global Finals in Knoxville, TN.
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