By NING SHAO, FPN Contributor
Laura Welch Bush Elementary School’s team Genetically Modified secured 1st place in the state Destination Imagination Engineering Challenge and went onto earn 4th at Globals.
Genetically Modified – Anne Countway, Dravin Sankar, Luke Bartlett, Nolan Shaw, Rush Bartlett, Sophie Qin and Vincent Chen – demonstrated exceptional creativity, teamwork, and engineering skills to claim this honor. The team is coached by Ning Shao and Rush Bartlett.
What is Destination Imagination Engineering Challenge
Destination Imagination challenges are designed to inspire creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration among students. The Engineering Challenge, in particular, tasks teams with designing and building innovative solutions to complex problems while incorporating storytelling and technical elements. This year’s challenge required participants to create a structure capable of holding weight and traveling over a single cord over distance while presenting a compelling story that begins.
The scoring for DI competitions is divided into three main components and each component is scaled to ensure fairness with the Central Challenge typically accounting for the majority of the score, followed by the Instant Challenge and Team Choice Elements.
Genetically Modified’s outstanding performance across all components highlights their versatility and dedication.
What is Destination Imagination Instant Challenge
In addition to their success in the Engineering Team Challenge, the team also excelled in the Instant Challenge, which are unprepared tasks that test a team’s ability to think on their feet, solve problems creatively, and work collaboratively under time constraints.
Genetically Modified showcased their exceptional teamwork and problem-solving skills by winning 1st place in the Instant Challenge at the Heart of Texas regional DI competition.
Not the first win, yet not the last
This victory is not the first for some of the team members. The team won first place in the Heart of Texas regional DI competition in February. Additionally, in 2023, five of the students— Anne Countway, Dravin Sankar, Nolan Shaw, Rush Bartlett, and Vincent Chen — were part of the celebrated team “Crazy Yeti Children”. Representing LWBE, they clinched 1st place in the Global Destination Imagination Engineering Challenge, an international achievement.
Additionally, at the same time they competed in the DI Engineering Challenge, four team members — Bartlett, Shaw, Chen and Sankar — were also participating in the FIRST Lego League robotics competition where they went to the state level.
Coaches Ning Shao and Rush Bartlett are part of the supportive environment fostered at LWBE.
Genetically Modified represented LWBE at the Global Destination Imagination Tournament from May 22 to 25 in Kansas City. Teams from all over the world shared experiences, culture, and skills, creating an unforgettable celebration of creativity and innovation.