A Riverview Elementary School team is back in Durango after taking second place in an international contest that challenges young minds.
The Bumfuzzlers, as they called themselves, who were Colorado’s entry in the Destination Imagination Global Finals contest, finished No. 2 out of 82 teams representing all other state champions in the United States and national champions from foreign countries.
A team from Virginia was No. 1, amassing 364.6 points; The Bumfuzzlers scored 352.82 points; and a team from Texas was third with 348.06 points. Eight of 19 foreign teams were from China, Turkey, South Korea, Romania and Mexico also were represented.
Destination Imagination is a nonprofit based in New Jersey that annually offers a list of thought-provoking projects from which participants choose a category and work on for months to perfect. Competitors also face spontaneous challenges once they arrive at the global finals.
The international competition took place this year May 22-25 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The Bumfuzzlers began working on their project in October, putting in time after class, at night and on weekends. Their challenge involved sound waves, requiring them to come up with a machine that produced two sounds using two physical methods and two different visual displays of sounds waves.
The contest also required them to write a skit in which the narrative pace changed at some point. The sound machine and visual displays were integrated into the skit.
Bumfuzzler imagination was good enough to lead them to the Colorado state title in April in Denver, which qualified them for the international contest.
The members of the Bumfuzzlers are fifth-graders Shaw Kassay, the son of Emily and John Kassay; Harrison Beattie, the son of Alana and Todd Beattie; Anna McCulloch, the daughter of Peggy and Kevin McCulloch; Kenzie Galloway, the daughter of Elizabeth Gordon; Grace Holst, the daughter of Jon Holst and Cara-Lyn Lappen; and Emy Mattox, the daughter of Alison Mulholland and Paul Mattox. Avery Hand, the daughter of Laura and Jim Hand, was the only fourth-grader.
daler@durangoherald.com
