26th place!

We are so excited to be in 26th place.  A much better finish than last year and they did great.   We also went to the "after party" for the pre-teen set.   It was LOUD and BUSY and VERY HOT!   It's time for bed and a few hours of sleep before we start out tomorrow morning.

We'd like to thank everyone for their support!

Jeanne

Photos of Team Challenge

Here are some photos of the team challenge from today.  We tell the boys before each challenge, give us your credentials and with that give us your nerves -- you keep your teamwork, creativeness and most importantly your FUN factor.  That said, the people holding 6 boys nerves should not be the picture taker!  :-)

Checking the props before "go time"

Lined up - the Official was taking their photo



Talking to the Appraiser -- seems that they needed to put electrical tape over the electromagnet alligator clips -- no problems for them!  They did want the fudge bar that that official was eating.

On the "launch line"

 GO!

Working their challenge - assembling and telling their story

Tonight -- closing ceremonies and after party.  

Jeanne

Team Challenge

We're done competing!  The props looked great, they did really good and worked well as a team.  The comments from the judges were very nice with comments on their teamwork, the creativity and research into their project.  They got more product points than they expected but lower on their props (which is to be expected at Globals).  Their goal was to have fun and learn -- so I'll say that the trip was a success.  All we have left is packing, packing and oh yah, Closing ceremonies and the after party.   Everyone is walking around with a glazed, tired look so it must have been a successful trip.

Heading home tomorrow morning early with the hopes of making Ames in one day (only 15 hours). 


Jeanne

Instant Challenge update

25% of the score is the Instant Challenge where the boys have 5-8 minutes to solve a challenge they have never seen.  They can't tell us what the challenge is until Globals is over, but what they can tell us is how they think they did.... more on that later.

To "warm" them up (as if the 96 degree heat didn't do that), they line up the teams that go in to challenge at the same time.   (They have many at elementary, middle, secondary and university going on at all times).  During the line up they play music and get the kids to "dance".   We have found out that we are danced impaired (or as the boys call it "fail").  But they did have fun!  They did the chicken dance and a few others.  

Once they are ready to go into the Instant Challenge the teams and parents waiting form a tunnel for them to run through.  It is so fun, but the Nelson's had an extra special helper with the tunnel as they suspended Evy as the roof to the tunnel.  So many people taking pictures and all the teams enjoyed it.

So,  how did they do in Instant Challenge -- they said they did "fine," really, really good, and "we did great"   So it sounds like they did just fine :-)

So proud....

I'm a little late in posting the last couple days events.    Let's start with the non-DI events.  

When we left the huge opening ceremonies we had to wait for our bus route to get us back to our hotel.   We finally got to the front of the line and they needed to load a woman with a scooter and her team.  The wheelchair lifts are on the front of the buses.   Our boys stood patiently and waited for the bus driver to get the woman settled, bring up the lift and tell us to board.  While we were waiting, two other teams pushed past us and on to the bus and pushed past the group trying to get the scooter situated.   The boys waited until they were told to board and they had really mad looks on their faces.  They whispered among themselves about how rude it was -- the parents were so proud!  Then the next day on another bus, a bunch of little girls (3rd graders) boarded and the bus was full so they would have stand up.  The  bus driver started giving instructions on how to hang on to the girls and instantly our team stood up and gave up all their seats for the girls.  The bus driver was so impressed that he thanked them and when it came to our "stop," he dropped us at our hotel instead of the bus stop.   Our little boys are growing up into fine young men!


Jeanne

What I learned today

Today was my 1st time pin trading.I really like pin trading.I like a whole bunch of pins,here are some of them:I like the Califonia Dragons and Motorcycles. I also like the Avengers and Hunger Games sets, and the pheonix pins.here is a picture of Dr.Frank the pin trading guru











By Max

Opening Ceremonies

Opening ceremonies are awesome! First they had a country and state march. Then they had a looooong boring speech about brains and the human body. During the speech they some videos about Globals in past years. after the speech they turned the lights and had a awesome light show with fireworks, videos, and many many light swords, and light up styrofoam.

by. Zack

Pete's Coffee Shop is Awesome

This morning we went downstairs and asked the lady at the front desk recommended a breakfast palce, she recommended Pete's Coffee Shop. At first we weren't sure about it, but when we got there you could smell the food.  We both ordered pancakes and they were awesome.   Jacob got bacon with his pancakes and even stole his Mom's bacon when she wasn't looking.   We think we will go back tomorrow for more PANCAKES and BACON.  We even met Pete, the owner.

Here's us at Pete's Coffee Shop

Jacob W. and Devin V.Q.

Another Country?

We know that we've been traveling alot, seeing alot of great things, but we thought we were better map readers since we thought we were at Mammoth Caves in Kentucky but my phone obviously thought we were way off track!

Jacob and Devin obviously need more education since they thought Kentucky was in the U.S.  Who knew that they moved Kentucky out of the USA?

Jeanne

Devin and Jacob's day 2

Day two started with a trip to Mammoth Caves and the Historic Tour.  Two hours of going up and down in the cave.  The favorites were "Fat Man's Misery" and "Tall Man's Agony" which required 11 yr olds and those larger than 11 year olds to walk sideways, bent in half and down stairs.  A fun adventures

We proceeded on to Cumberland Falls in the Daniel Boone National Forest.  It was a very windy drive, but the waterfall was worth the drive.  Here's a photo of Devin and Jacob walking down to the lower outlook.

We are now safely into Knoxville, TN and local time is 11:25 pm.  Time for bed for everyone!

Jeanne

And we're off....

Devin and Jacob and their drivers left Ames on Sunday morning around 9 am.  The Wiebke's van was loaded a bit full, but there may be a little room left if we look hard. 

Our first night stop would be Sheperdsville, KY. 

The rest of the team is leaving Tuesday or Tuesday night!

Jeanne

The Funky Chunky Monkeys win the State Championship

Congratulations to the Meeker Elementary Funky Chunky Monkeys Destination ImagiNation team for winning the state championship in Elementary-Challenge A division and being certified to represent Iowa at the 2012 Globals Finals!  

Each year 125,000 students across the U.S. and more than 30 countries participate in Destination ImagiNation.  Each team consists of between 2 and 7 students.   Only 8000 students are invited to the Global Finals!  That's the top 6% world-wide that are invited. 

Meeker students have participated in DI for 7 years.  This is the 5th team that has qualified for DI Globals from Meeker!

The State Championship DI Team - Elementary Level - Challenge A
The Meeker Funky Chunky Monkeys

The team sign

Sub-state tournament

Working on improvements for State

The Meeker Funky Chunky Monkeys!

Meeker Team chooses Challenge A - Assembly Required

Each DI challenge has a different focus - Challenge A is always technical in design.  This year, "Assembly Required" requires the team to:

• Design and build Equipment that retrieves Parts and delivers Products
•  Assemble Products from team-provided Parts to fill Orders and to use in your team’s Presentation.
• Earn extra points by deciding how best to fill Orders with no Parts or Products left over in the Assembly Area.
• Present a team-created Story about something that happens just in time

Did we mention all this has to happen within an 8-minute time period?  It's certainly challenging to build and plan during the school year and then present your solution within a 8 minute time limit.  The team challenge portion of DI accounts for 75% of your score.

The remaining 25% of the scores come from the Instant Challenge.  Instant Challenges require teams to engage in quick, creative and critical thinking. At a Tournament, a team will receive an Instant Challenge and the materials with which to solve it.  The team members must think on their feet by applying appropriate skills to produce a solution in a period of just five to eight minutes. While Team Challenges build long-term problem solving and teamwork skills, Instant Challenges provide an exciting, impromptu creative experience for competing teams. By practicing Instant Challenges during the course of the season, students can increase their improvisational skills and train their minds to work quickly.

Creative problem-solving, STEM and Core Curriculum standards, teamwork.   That's what DI is all about.

Destination ImagiNation 2012 Season

The 2012 DI season started in October 2011.   We had enough interest at Meeker that we could have had several teams.  However, each team needed a parent coach and a volunteer parent appraiser.  Unfortunately, we did not have enough parent interest to coach to get more than one team this year.   A reminder that we can have as many teams as we have interest and coaches.   DI promotes STEM standards (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) as well as coordinates with the national core curriculum.  More information on starting your own DI team can be found at www.idodi.org

Jeanne Wiebke