3 District Teams Place at Destination Imagination Global Finals 2016

by Ronnie Zamora/LFCISD

Los Fresnos CISD sent three teams in three divisions to the Destination Imagination Global Finals in Knoxville, Tenn. and came back with memories for a lifetime.

Los Fresnos Elementary placed the highest of the three teams, taking 15th place out of 48 teams at the DI Globals in the elementary division for Plain Sight Challenge.

Members of the LFE team were Alexander Duran, Sebastian Grimaldo, Hailey Martin, Tyler Martin, Daniel Nava, Victoria Ortiz and Francisco Quintero. Sponsors were Jessica Alaniz and Elaine Rodriguez.

Global Finals, which was held at The University of Tennessee, is the single largest competition of creativity that focuses on STEMS in the world. More than 18,000 students from 45 states attended. Students received a real-life college experience as every team stays on campus in the university dormitories.

Los Cuates Middle School finished 27th place in the Pace of Change Challenge in the middle school division. Members of the LCMS team were J.J. Atkinson, Devean Garcia, Samantha Jones, William Ortiz, Nicolas Sanchez and Adathamy Villarreal. Sponsor was Kristina Cranick.

Los Fresnos High School/Los Fresnos United placed 46th in the Pace of Change Challenge in the high school division. Members of the LFHS/LFU team were freshmen Zoe Arriaga, Niomi Gamez, Audrey Solis and Ann Solis and sophomore Caroline Reyes-Jimenez. Sponsor was Daniel Cranick.

The Destination Imagination program is a fun, hands-on system of learning that fosters students’ creativity, courage and curiosity through open-ended academic Challenges in the fields of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), fine arts and service learning. Participants learn patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the collaborative problem-solving process. Teams may showcase their solutions at a tournament.