2 Teams of Hosmer School Students Show Their Creativity and Their 'Smarts' at Destination Imagination

Two teams from the Hosmer School came home as award winners from a competition that stresses creativity, teamwork and problem solving.

The school sent five teams of seven students to the Massachusetts Destination ImagiNation competition at Beverly High School over the weekend. Two were “rising stars” teams of first and second graders and three teams were made up of third and fourth graders.

The older children take on challenges from areas of engineering, science, math, art and music and students must use team building and deductive reasoning to complete the challenge, according to an announcement from the Hosmer School PTO.

The teams began preparing for the competition in November 2012 with the help of teachers and parents.

Two Hosmer teams won special awards during the day-long competition.

The Cool Creative Kids did the challenge "In The Zone" and took first place. As regional champions the team will move on to the State Tournament on March 30 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, according to the announcement.

The Cool Creative Kids team members are Malcolm MacDonald, Jonathan Fujiwara, Henry Yusem, Elizabeth Elvin, Allison Fitzpatrick, Chloe Fandetti and Natalie Finton. Team leaders are parents Liz Yusem, Julia Elvin, and Brian Fitzpatrick.

The Cool Cats took on the “Wind Visible” challenge and were awarded a special engineering prize, the Renaissance Award for Engineering Excellence. They finished in second place.

The Cool Cats team members are Mackenzie Hoover, Willa Field, Leyla Mandel, Maud Neeley, Jocelyn Beecher and Liana Rice. Team leaders are second grade teacher Katja Spongberg Pearse, and parent Thea Sahr.

The program at Hosmer started two years ago with two rising star teams. The children in Destination ImagiNation paid a fee to be in the club, however, the majority of the program was funded by the Hosmer PTO. The program was open to all students and no child was turned away, according to the announcement. The five teams included 35 students.