On Saturday, April 15th, the Bob Jones Destination Imagination teams, Rock Bottom Carpets, Upon the Back of the Fifth of May, The Nest, and Feminine Anemone Enemies competed against other teams from across Alabama in the State Tournament at UAH.

All four of the teams that competed at regionals moved up to the state competition. DI teams Rock Bottom Carpets, who competed in the Improv challenge, The Nest, who competed in the Technical challenge, and Feminine Anemone Enemies, who competed in the Fine Arts challenge, all came in first place and are moving on to Global Finals.

“DI is the world’s largest creative problem-solving program for students, focusing on teaching kindergarten through university students to solve STEAM (STEM plus the arts)-focused, multidisciplinary challenges (primarily merging engineering and communication skills) in a team format, with a budget, timeline, and logistical parameters,” stated Robin Dauma, sponsor of Destination Imagination for Bob Jones High School and Discovery Middle School. “Over 8,000 students from all corners of the globe (48 states and over 20 countries represented) will converge upon the campus of UT, Knoxville, having won the honor of competing at the international level by winning first place honors at their state (or national) DI tournaments.”

Students are eager to stay in dorms for a week and compete against teams from all over the US and countries like China, South Korea, Canada, and Brazil in challenges they have been perfecting all year.

Each team chose a central challenge at the beginning of the school year, and Global Finals is an opportunity to showcase what they have done in front of a large audience of international judges and spectators. They must also complete an instant challenge, which is a spontaneous and classified challenge that could either involve elements of engineering, improv, or both.

Ginny Genge, a member of The Nest who has never gone to Globals before, stated, “I’m excited for all of it. It’s my first year and I don’t know what to expect but it sounds like a blast.”

Global Finals will take place from Tuesday, May 23 to Saturday, May 27.