Three Bedford Destination Imagination teams competed at Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn., last weekend: Bedford High School’s sophomore team Duct Duct Tape; McKelvie Intermediate School’s fifth-grade team Mysterious Inventors; and Riddle Brook Elementary School’s fourth-grade team Born Wild.

According to Destination Imagination Global Finals website, “1,276 teams from 45 states, seven Canadian provinces and 13 countries made Destination Imagination Global Finals the largest celebration and competition of creativity and problem-solving skills of its kind, anywhere.”

DI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students, from pre-school through college, expand their imaginations and develop creative problem solving skills. DI students compete in group challenges ranging from scientific equations to theatrical presentations. DI team members of all ages must work with each other, and not with the help of the team manager, to complete their challenge.

“Our team is pretty unconcerned about competing. They want to do somewhat well, but our main focus is having the experience of a lifetime by meeting friends from around the world, watching other teams’ phenomenal challenges, and participating in an overall great event,” said Jackie Valeri, Bedford High School student and DI team member, before heading to finals.

Team Duct Duct Tape has competed at Global Finals three times. This year, the team decided to participate in the solar stage challenge.

“Our skit is about solar energy,” Valeri said. “Two twin scientists tried to make a device to capture solar energy, and one put radiation into their device and destroyed the machine. The radiation also turned their elevator into a time-traveling elevator, which transported them to all the great uses of solar energy: Archimedes’ ideas in ancient Greece, the invention of the world’s first solar food cooker, installation of solar panels on the ISS and finally the future.”

This was the first time the Mysterious Inventors competed at Global Finals.

“The kids set the goal of going to Globals back in October of last year. They made it happen. What coach wouldn’t be proud?” said team manager Chrisann Dalton.

Like their older comrades, the Mysterious Inventors decided to participate in the solar stage challenge. According to Dalton, after the team decided on a concept for a story, the members broke into three separate work groups based on the three major points categories: story, prototype and theatrical lighting.

“The mini groups gave each team member a chance to showcase their talents/interests. The members liked having ownership of a piece. It also made the process of solving the challenge run more efficiently.” Dalton said.

Dalton also said her team wasn’t nervous to compete at Globals because their goal was to make it to finals, not to win.

“Before their performance, I told them that I didn’t care if their whole set fell apart. I just wanted them to enjoy every minute of performing the skit for the last time,” she said.

And enjoy they did.

“DI Global Finals is like Disneyland for brains!” team member Emma Jacobs said.

This year was also the first time Born Wild had the opportunity to compete at Global Finals. The group decided to participate in the world canvas challenge, which requires DI members to give back to their community, and chose to focus on the recycling efforts in Bedford.

According to team manager, Shana Potvin, the team presented a skit that showed a character named Buckethead, who refused to recycle but was convinced during the skit by a group of DI kids.

In the skit, the team incorporated their Facebook page (Bedford NH recycles), their marketing brochure and the sign they designed for the transfer station, to encourage recycling. These were all used to convince Buckethead to recycle.

“The team is so proud to have been able to go to the global finals in Tennessee. It was an event that they will always remember. Being able to participate in the largest educational competition in the world was such a thrilling and fun event for the team,” Potvin said. “The team was more excited than nervous to compete at Globals. They felt very prepared with their set and their skit, so they were ready.”

“I am proud that our team did great and we were on the big screen at opening and closing ceremonies. I am proud that we came in 20th out of 41 teams at our first global finals,” team member Emma Bechert said. “I am proud that people in our town are paying attention to recycling because of us, because we have a lot of Bucketheads that we still need to get to recycle.”

Katelyn Dobbs can be reached at 594-6549 or kdobbs@nashuatelegraph.com.