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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2000)
Page 8 The INDEPENDENT, April 19, 2000 Vernonia teen one of Oregon’s “Destination Imagination” team By Judy Hill garnered the coveted Da Vinci Award for outstanding innova Vernonia teen Roman Mat tion and creativity, two Renais tus is full of sparkling enthusi asm when he talks about the sance Awards for excellence in seven-member Destination engineering, and a Spirit of DI Imagination team of which he Award for good sportsmanship. nation. is a part. After winning the Ore gon Regional competition and the Oregon State Champi onship, the DI team will be heading to the world competi tion, Destination 2000, at Ames, Iowa, May 24-28. They will face stiff competition against 60 teams from around the world. In the regional and state competitions, the team also Pretty heady stuff for a group of students who are 15 years old, with one member just turning 18. What makes the team even more unique is that these students are all home schooled, and this is the first time a home-schooled DI team has won at the state level. Roman left public school in the fourth grade because he and his parents, Denise and P R IN T IN G Plain or ¿Fancy 4 2 9 -9 4 1 0 The INDEPENDENT FAIRBANKS MORSE JET PUMP SALE 1/2 HP SHALLOW WELL...$160°° 3/4 HP SHALLOW WELL...$190°° 1 HP SHALLOW WELL..... $200°° Andrew Mattus, were con cerned about crowded class rooms and the quality of edu cation available in their former town. They moved to Vernonia two years ago. Roman said he is a self-mo tivated learner and has en hanced his zest for knowledge, as well as his independence and maturity, with the home- schooling curriculum provided through the Oregon Home Ed ucation Network. Through con tact with OHEN, Roman met and was asked to join their DI team. He calls his involvement with DI a life-changing experi ence, giving him social skills, creativity and self-confidence he might not have developed for years. Which is precisely the point of DI. Formerly called Odyssey of the Mind, DI is an interna tional non-profit organization for kindergarten through col lege students, teaching life skills and expanding imagina tions through creative problem solving. Tournaments are held at dif ferent levels, consisting of two parts related to a yearly theme. In the Instant Challenge cate gory, teams are given a sce nario to problem solve. They must brainstorm the solution in four minutes and perform it for the judges in three minutes. In the state competition, Ro man’s team was given the problem of performing an opera involving a hero and a villain. Teamwork, fast thinking, confidence, courage and cre ativity on a dime obviously went into their ability to re spond and produce a winning result in four minutes. The second part of the com petitions involves a longer term project called a Team Chai- lenge.This year’s DI theme is and room and board for five “Food for Thought.” days. OHEN is holding a garage The OHEN team designed what they call “the infernal ma sale Fri.-Sat., April 28-29, at chine” which is a mechanical 3395 NW 164th Terrace, and electrical maze through Beaverton. Donations of items which five raw eggs must pass may be made through Cindie unbroken. The team members Edmunds at 591-0477. Tax-deductible donations and the eggs are characters in a plot, in this case involving may be sent to Oregon Home good and evil, the eggs being Education Network, Destina bad “hench-eggs” who have tion Imagination Team, P.O. captured the chef, played by Box 218, Beaverton, OR one of the team members. 97075-0218. Names of spon There are costumes, music, sors who have contributed props, dialogue, a narrator $100 or more will be listed in an (Roman’s role) and an instant upcoming issue of the Hillsboro element provided by the judges Argus. Corporate donors just before each competition should contact Christine Webb performance. The fun is in the at 647-2992. fact that things never go exact To learn more about Desti ly the same way twice. Things nation Imagination, see their happen, and part of the chal web page at http://dini.org/. lenge is to cope with the un foreseen in a way that makes sense. For example, the eggs don’t always make it through unbroken, and the plot must spontaneously be adjusted to accommodate mishaps. Just $17.50/month for: In addition to Roman, team members include Jake Ed WEB Space monds of Aloha, Lauren and Unlimited E-mail Accounts Alaina Grimm of North Plains, 40,000 Newsgroups Caitlin and Matthew Letts of Domain Hosting Beaverton, and Keegan O’ Shell Accounts Connor of SW Portland. These FREE SET UP area students will be repre FREE MONTH OF senting their towns and Oregon SERVICE with SIX on a world-class platform. Another challege for the MONTH SIGNUP team is the fact that they must W W W .A G A LIS.N E T raise the money for their trip to or call Jeff at Ames in very short order. They 429-2701 or will need $10,000 for trans portation for the team, their 3 0 7 -7 4 7 9 coaches and project, plus fees UNLIMITED INTERNET Towing Gasoline Alley Auto Wrecking Don’t wave goodbye at a mill closure. Support Sustainable Forestry Put loggers to work, not robo-saws. Support Sustainable Forestry Auto & Truck 24 H o u r Closed Sun & Mon Tues-Fri 8 am-5 pm 54372 Nehalem Hwy. 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