The 17th annual Global Finals, hosted by Destination Imagination (DI) ended Saturday with teams from 17 countries across the globe – including Australia, Canada, China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United States – celebrating creativity through a series of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), improvisational and service learning challenges. Students from Texas, China, Colorado, Poland and others earned the first place trophy in their respective categories.
Notable winners from the 2017 Global Finals include:
- Teams from China swept the wins at this year’s Global Finals with 20 total teams that placed in the top three of their respective categories, nine of which came in first.
- Bernards DI from New Jersey was the only team to receive the Torchbearer special award for the team’s thoughtful project that funded a year of schooling for 10 young African women.
- Tennessee native, Mt. Pleasant Middle School from Mount Pleasant, won the Renaissance award for moving the appraisers with their compelling storytelling, which portrayed the impact of living with autism and showed a realistic portrayal of the different responses from the community ranging from bullying to sensitive communication.
- Junior High School No. 13 in Wroclaw, Poland also walked away with the Renaissance award for creating a beautifully engineered and intricate mechanical, wooden hummingbird with wings that moves as if in-flight.
- Team Originality from Shanghai Fengxian High School in China placed first in the engineering category for secondary level, receiving a monetary scholarship from the Project Management Institute (PMI).
- The “Goon Platoon” team from Milan High School in Tennessee placed first in the “In It Together” Instant Challenge for their quick, creative and critical thinking shown during the tournament, producing a solution on-site within eight minutes.
To view all of the Global Finals 2017 winners, visithttp://www.globalfinals.org/results/.
