9th Place for Hopkinton Middle School!

Our 7th grade team placed in the top 10 in the world!  Congratulations Patrick, Aren, Neal, Austin, Niha, Izzy, and Eva!!!!!

We're at the Closing Ceremonies

The Closing Ceremonies are underway in Knoxville.  Watch live at  http://ditv.globalfinals.org

Walking Around the Expo

At the Knoxville Convention Center, DI Globals has their Innovation Expo.  Here you can explore the exhibits, conduct some weird science experiments, and learn from organizations such as National Geographic, NASA, US Space & Rocket Center, 3M, Datawind, Scholastic and Synaptic Design.

In this quick video, Austin is shooting a Vortex Cannon.  Pretty cool.  http://youtu.be/GTI7GF8r0E8


What can you make with liquid nitrogen?


You can make ice cream!

And you can freeze graham crackers with an unexpected result (watch Patrick's face) in this quick funny video!  http://youtu.be/UEMW7_-Nflo


The kids also had a chance to participate in the 3M Duct Tape Bus challenge.  If the participants at Global Finals duct tape an entire bus, 3M will donate school supplies to local children.  How could we not take that challenge?

Movie Under The Stars

Last night DI Global Finals held their Movie Under the Stars night in Worlds Fair Park.  We were treated to an advanced screening of James Cameron's Deep Sea Challenge, a National Geographic documentary about extreme exploration at the Earth's deepest known point in the Mariana Trench between Australia and China.  The film will be released on August 8th, and we're sworn to secrecy.  We can tell you that it was a great film!

To rev the clouds up before the film, there was a lot of awesome music and dancing.  Check out a snippet of Aren, Adrina, Patrick and Austin - http://youtu.be/GPoppmU1Qhs

5th Graders Up Next

5th Grade team performs at 2:00 pm today.  Here they are practicing in the hotel room prior to the competition.

7th Graders Did Great

Our HMS team performed and did an awesome job with their performance this morning. 

Answering questions from the appraisers.

Last Minute Prep

A few last minute early morning preparations before their performance at 8:36.

They look nervous, huh?

Duct Tape Ball

Tonight was an exciting night for us. The kids were planning to go to the Duct Tape Ball and made elaborate costumes out of duct tape resembling each of the DI challenge characters.

But, before we could board the shuttle bus to the ball, we got this message - which cancelled all shuttle busses and events for the night.  Someone definitely rained on our duct tape parade!

Today was Instant Challenge Day

Today, Thursday, both teams competed in their Instant Challenges.  DI Instant Challenges require teams to engage in quick, creative, and critical thinking.  Team members are given materials and a challenge and are given 5-8 minutes to solve it.  Teams are to keep the challenge a secret as part of the DI code of conduct until the end of Global Finals.  With the instant challenges done, both teams move on to their Central Challenges tomorrow.

Opening Ceremony

View from the top of the stadium.

Lining up for the Global Finals Opening Ceremony

Hanging with our friends from Qatar.

Learning About Space

5th Grade Team Learning Facts on DI

At the KCC

Haley, Sarah, and Elizabeth at the Knoxville Convention Center in the 3M Duct Tape Playground.

Our 5th Grade Team exploring Worlds Fair Park, Knoxville

Parents Have Fun Too!

Mr. Patel learning about astronauts at the NASA exhibit.

Pin Trading is Huge!

At DI Global Finals, the kids have a chance to trade pins with other kids and adults from around the world.  Today, the 7th grade team was on Qatar national television trading pins with other middle school kids from Qatar. This year is the first year Qatar has sent teams to compete.  

Our Hopkinton kids have been busy collecting pins from teams around the globe.  Today they collected pins from Korea, Turkey, Qatar, and several US states.

Austin and Patrick trade pins with Qatar team members.

Izzy and Niha setting up their pins.

On the way to the Luau

The 7th grade team in their Hopkinton DI Global Finals t-shirts on the bridge to the Luau.  Thank you to the Airbrush Shack and Dave Laabs for these awesome shirts!

World's Fair Park

Did you know that the 1982 World's Fair was held in Knoxville, Tennessee?  The World's Fair Park is located outside our hotel.  It includes some cool water fountains and also the Sunsphere, a large gold globe that has an observation deck which lets you see all of Knoxville.  The Sunsphere was also in a Simpsons episode.

Welcome to Knoxville

Teams started arriving this afternoon.  The first thing we saw out of the gate -- a big electronic welcome!

And....we're off!

Hopkinton DI will start making its way to Knoxville, TN, tomorrow.  We wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who helped support these students and helped to get us there.  These two Hopkinton teams have the chance to experience something that only 5% of DI kids around the world get to experience.  It truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity for our teams!   Thank you all again for your support!

Did you know you can send a message to the teams?

Want to wish the teams good luck?  Want to tell them how proud you are of their accomplishments?  You can!  Post a message to the blog!

http://hopkintondi.blogspot.com/p/send-message-to-teams.html

Vendor Fair TODAY!

Reminder that TODAY is the vendor fair in support of Hopkinton DI at 1 Edgehill Road from 11-2 and 7-9 pm. Need a graduation gift, birthday gift, or just want to treat yourself? Stop by today and help the kids get to Knoxville! Hope to see you there!

What Does it Take to Get to the Destination Imagination Global Finals?

It takes months of hard work, teamwork, dedication, winning a regional tournament, winning the state championship, a few rolls of duct tape, and help from their families and the community. 

Hopkinton is very fortunate to have two Destination Imagination (DI) teams win the Massachusetts State Championships for their challenges and these teams have been invited to compete at the Destination Imagination Global Final competition (www.globalfinals.org) in Knoxville, TN, May 21-24.   They will represent both Hopkinton and the State of Massachusetts at this international competition.

Destination Imagination is an international non-profit, volunteer-led organization whose purpose is to inspire and equip students to become our next generation of innovators and leaders.  At the start of the DI season at the beginning of the school year, teams choose one of seven DI Challenges. After months spent creating, developing and practicing their solutions to these challenges, they go to a local tournament. Top-scoring teams advance to state or country tournaments. The top level of the tournament is the Global Finals—the world’s largest celebration of creativity which will have more than 1,300 teams from 45 states, 7 Canadian provinces and 13 countries showcasing their DI Challenge solutions.

Congratulations to the 7^th grade Middle School team of Aren Arakelian, Neal Patel, Patrick Webb, Austin Marques, Izzy Puri, Niha Gopi, Eva Kuruvilla (Team Manager: Leda Arakelian)

Congratulations to the 5^th grade Hopkins School team of Elizabeth Kane, Tara Joshi, Paige Lavelanet, Ceara Perry, Mia Sannicandro, Vani Sharma, Sara Bernardo (Team Manager: Cindy Bernardo - Co Manager: Haley Bernardo.) 

For their DI challenge, the Hopkinton Middle School DI team (7^th grade) worked on a community service project to generate awareness and raise funds for Soldier’s Angels, a charity which supports US veterans at home as well as abroad.  They wrote letters to servicemen, sent care packages overseas, and raised money which will help fund various programs for the vets.  The Hopkinton Hopkins Elementary School DI team (5^th grade) worked on a community service project to bridge the gap between the elderly and children.  Their project raised awareness on elder affairs and raised funds to support the Hopkinton Senior Center. 

Attending Global Finals is a huge opportunity for these students.  The week includes not only the DI competition for their central challenges and instant challenges, but also includes several learning opportunities including an Innovation Expo and interaction opportunities with National Geographic and NASA.   For the kids, this is a once in a lifetime learning opportunity. 

However, the cost to travel and attend the competition seems insurmountable, and the teams are hoping that they can raise funds to help defray these costs.  Hopkinton hopes to send two teams, each of seven children, with one parent to accompany each child.  The cost of the registration fees, housing, airfare, transfers, for the two teams is well in excess of $40,000. 

Fundraising Events:  Send Hopkinton to DI Global Finals

The students will be selling Otis Spunkmeyer traditional chocolate chip and butter sugar cookie dough, unique signature flavors and reduced fat options.  If you are interested in helping the children, please consider purchasing one of these products.  Contact Cindy Bernardo, cindybernardo@hotmail.com

The students will also be holding a fundraiser at the Fruit Street Fields in Hopkinton on Saturday, May 17^th, where they will be collecting donations and also selling items to raise funds to cover their expenses.

In addition, the HPTA will be acting as the teams’ 501c3 fiscal sponsor.  A donation in any amount could also be sent to the HPTA c/o Cindy Bernardo, 5 Susan Drive, Hopkinton, MA 01748.  Checks should be made out to “HPTA for DI.”

Companies interested in sponsoring the teams should contact Karen Webb at webb.karen@verizon.net.  More information on Destination Imagination, please visit www.MADIkids.org.