WHIZ KIDS: Lutherville Lab Students Headed to 'Global' Competition

A group of Lutherville students are on their way to compete in an international academic competition following a stunning win in the Destination Imagination national tournament this weekend.

The students from Lutherville Laboratory, competing under the team name “Running Riddlers,” are on hot win streak, coming in first place at the regional and state levels.

“It’s neat to see they are able to play and have fun, but when it really came down to it, they took it so seriously, and they did extremely well," said Pam Ward, a team manager. "It was exciting to be at States, and see the other teams, and know they had a good chance of winning. And when they got up to perform, it was the best I’d ever seen.”

Destination Imagination is a nonprofit educational program that challenges teams of students to solve “open-ended” intellectual challenges.

On May 25, 1,100 teams from around the world will put their wits to the test in the Destination Imagination “Globals,” held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Katie Ward, a sixth grader at , heads up the team as the oldest DI team member. Her brother Josh Ward is her teammate, a fourth grader at . David Choi, Adam Madro and Henry O’Connor, all Lutherville Lab third graders, round out the five-member team. 

The Running Riddlers have been tasked with presenting a solution to problem they have been able to work on all year. Their challenge is called “Unidentified Moving Object,” which is considered a “technical” challenge, as opposed to a DI challenge that’s classified as “scientific,” “improvisational” or “structural,” though it includes those elements. 

The kids’ job has been to design and build equipment that can move various objects to and from towering heights, using no electricity. Then they must also use their theatrical skills by creating and presenting a faux-commercial that highlights the features of their equipment.

This is the challenge they’ve been practicing—and winning, in each tournament so far—but the Global test will be far more difficult. 

The students will be presented with the Instant Challenge, which requires teams to think quickly and critically on the spot. At the tournament, a team will receive the materials to solve an Instant Challenge, and no more than eight minutes to do so. The DI website explains it best: “While Team Challenges build long-term problem solving and teamwork skills, Instant Challenges provide an exciting, impromptu creative experience for competing teams.”

The team managers who oversee practice sessions are Pam Ward, who is Katie’s and Josh’s mom, and Steve O’Connor, who is Henry’s dad.

Steve had two reactions to watching his team compete on Saturday—one as a parent, and one as the manager.

“As a parent and as a manager, it was exciting,” said Steve. “It was a long day. They came back very confident from their first challenge. Then we went into the performance. Watching it as a parent, I was very proud and pleased that everyone hit their lines and their cues. As team manager, I was thinking how they are always able to come together and bring their A-game during a competition.”

Steve has witnessed the kids perform, and practice, at varying levels of precision. Sometimes in practice, believe it or not, the kids are not always amazing, despite their first-place win streak. But they definitely deliver the goods in a tournament.

“This group has, once we get into competition, always, always had a high level of execution on whatever they were doing,” Steve said.

Jillian Bartholomew, a third grade teacher at Lutherville, is the staff liaison for DI. She was present and cheering at Saturday’s tournament, and is floored by the Riddlers’ enthusiasm, spirit and excitement.

“You should have seen them!” she exclaimed. “They were amazing. Not only was their performance spot-on and dramatic, but each time they moved an object where it had to got, they high-fived each other.”

David Choi, a third grader on the team, sounded pretty collected about the whole experience.

“I had pretty good confidence that we’d win,” he said, “because we weren’t competing with so many other people.”

He admitted to being more nervous about Globals.

“But not so nervous,” he added, after some consideration.

Henry O’Connor is excited for Globals.

“It’ll be harder, and funner,” he predicted.