All three Sequim teams competing at the Regional Destination Imagination competition on Saturday, Feb. 26, at Klahowya Secondary School in Silverdale, placed in the top three in the region, with one team moving on to compete at the state competition on April 2.

Destination Imagination is a group creative problem-solving contest in which students solve a “Central Challenge” and an “Instant Challenge.” Students choose a central challenge that they will solve in the fall and prepare their presentation in the months before the regional competition.

These challenges are aptly named, says Sequim Middle School teacher Tricia Billes, because “they are complex and difficult and require creativity, planning, cohesive group work and curiosity.”

All three teams also had to complete a top-secret Instant Challenge and had to incorporate two “side trips” or personal talents into their presentations.

Sequim students competed in three different challenges:

Triple-Take Roadshow challenge

Audrey Hughes, Reagan Smith, Morganna Fergusson, Porter Funston, Damon Little, and Astrid Martin chose the Triple-Take Roadshow challenge. This involved creating an original script that is adapted and presented to three different pretend audiences. In addition, they werre required to include two modes of transportation between pretend audiences and one special effect. The Sequim students, who call themselves “The Unrestricted Acting Gang” or “TUAGs” for short, came up with a fractured version of the Three Little Pigs. The entire presentation, including setup, had to be performed within the time limit of eight minutes. The TUAGs came in third in the region.

Mythology Mission challenge

The next team, made up of Andrew Hansted, John Edson, Liam Stevenson, Addie Berg and Sean Weber, had to research six cultures and the mythology of each culture. They had to be prepared to do an improvisational performance on one of those cultures with a few unexpected, last-minute twists thrown in during their performance. In addition, they had to include mythological creatures in their performances.

Their comical performance made the assessors laugh out loud several times. Calling themselves the “Mythology Maniacs,” this team also placed third in the Mythology Mission challenge at regionals.

Unidentified Moving Object challenge

Finally, the “Lugnuts” competed in the Unidentified Moving Object challenge.

Erin Gordon, Blake Wiker, Johnny Young, and Riley Scott took first place and are moving on to the state competition, set for April 2 at Eastmont School District in Wenatchee. Top teams at state advance to a “global” competition May 25-28 in Knoxville, Tenn. The Lugnuts’ challenge was to create a device that moves objects from the top of a six-foot tower to the floor and objects from the floor to the top of the tower. The objects each had to be placed in a specific quadrant. In addition, at the beginning of the challenge, all the items necessary to build the device had to be contained within a 24-inch-by-24-inch box, and at the end of the challenge, all items had to be back in the box. The Lugnuts also had to perform a sales presentation.