In their fourth year of trying, a group of students from Denver’s Steck Elementary School brought home a third-place trophy from last weekend’s world championships in the Destination ImagiNation competition.
“We all trust each other; we didn’t get as nervous as we used to,” said 11-year-old Isabel Burton.
The team calls itself Two and a Half Twins for good reason: It is made up of two sets of twins and a lone twin whose sibling isn’t part of the team.
“Some twins feel like they have a special connection with each other. It’s kind of weird, but it’s like another language, like a secret language with your twin,” said Jo Stroup, 11. The team “plays charades, and that’s pretty much what helps us communicate.”
Destination ImagiNation is a popular tournament competition between teams given an array of puzzles and challenges to complete.
The instant-challenge aspect of the competition was only a fragment of their total score. The premier event — a creative skit to be performed in eight minutes — produces a majority of a team’s points.
Without parental assistance, Two and a Half Twins worked for nine months assembling a set, creating costumes and writing a skit about the pangolin, a mammal native to Africa, all for under $125. The challenge was to portray aspects of the pangolin, such as its ability to hunt ants and its skunklike stench defense, without saying what it was doing on stage.
Another Colorado team, from St. Mary’s Academy in Cherry Hills Village, finished third in a different challenge category. A team from Meridian Elementary in Broomfield finished 11th in a category, and a team from Goddard Middle in Littleton also took home a third. Teams from the Cherry Creek School District and Penrose competed as well.
When it came time for the awards at the Knoxville, Tenn., competition, Two and a Half Twins members held their breath. They didn’t think they improved from last year’s performance — when they finished 22nd, said 10-year-old Nolan Kelly.
“I’m proud of what we did at globals, and I’m proud of that trophy,” Nolan said.
