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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
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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
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Caitlin and Matthew Letts of
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FREE SET UP
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Another challege for the
MONTH SIGNUP
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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
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will need $10,000 for trans
portation for the team, their
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