This year Mercer Island qualified a record 14 elementary, middle and high school Destination Imagination teams to the state competition in Kennewick and six teams have now advanced to the Global Finals to be held May 22 to 25 in Kansas City, joining 1,400 teams, encompassing 17,000 students from 15 countries.

Destination Imagination (DI) is a non-profit educational program dedicated to teaching students the creative process through hands-on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) and service learning challenges, in which student teams solve a variety of open-ended challenges and present their solutions at tournaments.

West Mercer Elementary teacher Mark Headlee manages the Mercer Island DI program, now in its 12th year.

The following teams have advanced to the DI Global Finals:

MIHS Engineering Team, Legibln’t

(This team also received a Renaissance Award for outstanding design and performance.)

Team members are Landon Schmidt-Warnecke, Kevin Wang, Justin Lesko, Wesley Ho, Jake Chansky, Renee White and Sam Frohlich. Team Manager is Mark Headlee.

MIHS Engineering Team, Scientificn’t

Members are Ichi Nakata, Sophia Ristuben, Lila Shroff, Justin Skene, Ryan Shobe, Oliver Schaaf and Anantika Mannby. Team Manager is Headlee.

MIHS Improv Team, 1-800-Get-Greg

Members are Nico Galvin, Damien Snyder, Lila Shroff and Ryan Shobe. Team Manager is Headlee.

Islander Middle School Engineering Team, Unexpected Error

Members are Aditi Mannby, Eliot Geer, Tyler Langley, Jonathan Aggar, Daniel Marcus, Sidh Shroff and Keegan Wang. Team Manager is Headlee

Islander Middle School, Technical Challenge Team, We Haven’t Decided Yet

Team members are Sophia Loiselle, Anahita Najafian, Addie Swenson, Amelia Han, Simone Shenoi, Sahana Subramanian and Anna Koskinen. Team Manager is Chris Cocklin-Ray.

Elementary Fine Arts Team, Absolootley Scrumptious

Team members are Blakely Bourke, Sadie Kim, Steffi Kim, Aadyaa Singhal, Brendan Sung, Daniel Lee and Trisha Choudhary. Team Manager is Julie Langley.