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YHS Returns to Destination ImagiNation Global Finals

York House Returns to Destination ImagiNation Global Finals for Third Year in a Row

DI team at Global Finals in Knoxville, TN.
Our Gr. 8/9 Destination ImagiNation team at the Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A team of Grade 8 and 9 students returned to the Global Finals for the 3rd year in a row. The finals were held in Knoxville, Tennessee from May 22 to May 26th.

Team members Anisha C., Julianna P., Nicole T., Marisa D. and Laura R. competed in two separate challenges: the team challenge for which they prepare in advance and the instant challenge which they are given 3 to 5 minutes to prepare.

This year, the team took on a technical challenge called “Assemble It”. The team had to build a delivery device that is used to transport parts and products during an 8 minute play. The parts are transported from the parts depot to an assembly area. Here they needed to assemble the parts into finished products and then deliver these to the delivery area.

Teams were judged on the creativity of their solution, the play and transporter, as well as the number of orders they successfully delivered.

Artificial Heart - DI Global Finals
Artificial Hearts

Our DI team choose to create artificial hearts and pacemakers. The artificial hearts were made from sodium Polyacrylate, (Thank you Mrs. D!) vinyl gloves, elastic bands, and licorice sticks. The pacemakers were made from discarded milk bottle caps and plastic film containers.

The transporter was built from discarded bike wheels, left over wood and random supplies. It was powered by a cordless drill and driven by Anisha. Talk about creativity!

Patient "Denise" - DI Global Finals
The patient “Denise”.

During the assembly process, the team presented an eight minute play which featured Laura and Marisa as the medical personnel who needed to save the life of “Denise” whose heart was failing. The patient Denise was a “onesie” filled with newspaper with a styrofoam head attached (some of you may remember Denise from her visit to school earlier this year). Anisha and Julianna were the “Time Brothers” delivery service. Nicole T. acted as an elf from Santa’s work shop moonlighting as an assembler in the “Time Brothers” warehouse.

In the Instant Challenge, the team was presented with a problem and given three minutes to read the instructions and arrive at a solution. Then they were provided with five minutes to implement their solution. For this challenge, the girls needed to rely on its creativity, communication skills and fast thinking. They completed this task with the 5th highest score out of 53 teams in their challenge!

Overall the team finished 17th out of 53 teams in their division. Even more impressive, this was a team of Grade 8 and 9 students who were competing against mostly Grade 11 and 12 students from around the world! To qualify for Global Finals, the team won the Regional and Provincial competitions where they beat Grade 12 teams from across BC.

Destination ImagiNation is the world’s largest creative thinking programme. Over 100,000 students participate in DI around the world. This year, a record 1,275 teams from 13 countries competed at Global Finals.

If you are interested in more information on DI or perhaps joining the team next year, please contact Team Manager Chamkaur Cheema at [email protected].

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Model UN Goes to Berkeley

Berkeley Model United Nations
Berkeley Model United Nations

As spring rolls around the Model UN class at YHS makes the annual trip to a Model UN conference to exercise the global knowledge and debating / public speaking skills that the students have acquired throughout the year in this course.

For the second year in a row the class travelled to to San Francisco for the Berkeley Model United Nations (BMUN) 60th conference.

Upon arriving in San Francisco, the group spent the first day of the trip visiting some of the city’s classic destinations, such as Fisherman’s Wharf and the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory. After indulging in some sweets, we made our way downtown and went exploring all of the wonderful shopping that the streets had to offer. Many purchases later, the MUN team reunited for a group dinner – very delicious to say the least!

After a great day in the heart of San Francisco it was time to focus on the purpose of the trip, the conference. The following day the team made their way to the University of California, Berkeley, to attend the opening ceremonies, where we were privileged to hear Gillian Sorensen, a Senior Advisor at the United Nations Foundation, with an extensive background in International Relations.

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The first committee session of the conference was to follow. The group parted ways to join their committees that evening and commence the experience that the students had been preparing for all year long. The girls took part in a variety of UN committees, such as the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and even specialized committees such as the International Court of Justice and Press Corps, to name a few.

Over the course of three days the delegates debated global issues affecting countries all across the globe. It was an exhilarating few days and every York House student performed exceptionally well in their respective committees. The BMUN conference was a great success and from the students’ reviews it was well worth all of the effort and preparation that they had put in to it.

On behalf of the YHS Model UN students, we would like to express a huge thank you to Mr. Abt, Madame Marti, and Ms. Lee for their efforts as it would not have been possible to have had this fabulous trip without all of their valiant work. The trip was a memorable experience for everyone and next year’s MUN students look forward to what the 2013 trip will hold!

Kylie W., Grade 12