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The coach of the Maharishi School Destination ImagiNation teams said, "These teams were all coherent, focused and supportive of each other and appreciative of other performances."
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by Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA, The Review, and the Maharishi School website
21 June 2011
Five teams from Maharishi School won first place at the Iowa Destination ImagiNation competition in April, qualifying them for the world competition in Knoxville, Tennessee, where two of the teams placed in the top five in their category.
Competing against over 60 other state champs, a group of senior boys earned fourth place with their performance in a category that required the students to use three different storytelling methods for three different hypothetical audiences.
The Maharishi School website said, "The secondary level boys’ team placed 4th overall against 64 of the best teams in the world. This performance 'had the whole audience and the judges laughing and bursting into spontaneous applause,' according to DI coach, Mark Wilkins. 'People had heard about this team and the theater was almost full. The entire audience leapt to its feet in appreciation at the end of their performance.' Part of this challenge involved the creation of a 'technical spectacle,' which was engineered by senior, Dominic Borg. Borg’s creation received one of the highest rated technical scores the school has ever had, getting 29 out of 30 possible points for technical innovation."
Winning fifth place was a team of Middle School girls. The Maharishi School website said, "The middle level girls’ team gave an outstanding performance that wowed the appraisers. . . . The team's solution involved both acting and technical (engineering) elements and included an amazing gown."
Destination ImagiNation is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization that provides educational programs for students to learn and experience creativity, teamwork and problem-solving. Students work in teams to solve
mind-bending challenges and present their solutions at tournaments.
The Maharishi School's Destination ImagiNation teams have been extraordinarily successful, usually constituting a third to a half of all of the teams representing Iowa. Most other schools offer DI only to students in the gifted and talented programs, whereas any Maharishi School student wanting to participate in the Destination ImagiNation program is able to.
"I strongly feel that it should be in every school around the world," says student Holden Ketterhagen, a member of the fourth-place team. "DI taught me teamwork, and really helped with thinking not only out of the box, but to see that there is no limit to what a person can do or think. I can now look at problems and see alternative solutions that others may miss."
The Maharishi School website reported that Coach Wilkins said it was the most fun his teams had had in years at the international competition. “The teams all worked hard and had their best performances of the year at Global Finals. These teams were all coherent, focused and supportive of each other and appreciative of other performances.”
© Copyright 2011 Maharishi University of Management and Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment
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