Move over Rodgers and Hammerstein, there’s a new team in town who could rival the world of musical theatre. The Hamsteaks from St. Regis took first place during the Imagination Destination State Tournament for their musical challenge. As a result of their win, the Hamsteaks will be traveling to Knoxville, Tennessee to compete in the Global Finals in May.

The St. Regis elementary team, Tech Tigers, placed third at the competition held in Dillon on March 23.

Destination Imagination is a national program where school kids learn how to create extraordinary things from ordinary objects. They participate in hands-on activities that foster creativity, courage, and curiosity through academic challenges in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM, as well as, fine arts and service learning.

The Hamsteaks had the Fine Arts challenge which was called, “Change of Tune” and teams had to create a two act musical with music and lyrics. The middle-level team was comprised of six students from grades six through eight and included Kiya Taylor, Zoey Antos, Macy Hill, Kylie Lucier, Brooke Filek and Tia Hendricks.

They wrote and performed several original songs which included musical whistling and beat boxing during their performance. As part of the challenge, a spectacle had to occur, a change of plans as well as a technical or mechanical way to change the scenery that is visible to the audience. They also had to integrate comic relief throughout the skit said program advisor, Chera Antos.

The team worked almost daily after school, during lunch breaks and on weekends on their scenery, props and skit. They built a theatre out of PVC pipe along with several painted scenes. Once completed they only had eight minutes total time to set up the theatre and perform the skit.

The Tech Tigers team was seven members consisting of grades three through five and included Isaac Antos, Joseph Farris, Hunter Farris, Shelby Simkins, Kaleb Park, Faith Henham and Dillon Thomas. Theirs was an Engineering Challenge called “Drop Zone”. Antos said the team had to create a structure that could withstand weights being dropped from two feet onto it.

They also had to create and perform a skit which integrated several components including the testing of their structure, an event that was life changing, and one that visually or audibly depicted their event. The team also had to create their own scenery, props and costumes.

They met after schools several days a week, learning “how to come together as a team to create solutions, and they learned how to use power tools in order to build structure and frame for the scenery,” said Antos.

In August of each year, Destination Imagination releases new challenges, pertaining to the different subject matter areas for teams to solve. The challenges are designed to enable students to develop 21st Century skills, including teamwork, perseverance, self-directed learning, courage and leadership. Now, through their hard work, the St. Regis team will be traveling to the Destination Imagination Global Finals in May, where over 1,400 teams from around the world will compete with over 16,000 people in attendance. The team will also get to participate in numerous STEM and Fine Arts workshops offered during the four-day event.

“Our team is working hard to raise the funds to go and to get some final touches done to their challenge solution,” said Antos.