Groups of 4th-grade and 5th-grade students from Wareham Public Schools both took third place in the Destination ImagiNation Challenge at Dennis-Yarmouth High School earlier this month.

The competition, which is organized by New Jersey based nonprofit Destination Imagination, Inc., focuses on creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving.

The 4th-grade team from Minot Forest Elementary's challenge was "B: Scientific," and was more specifically titled, "Wind Visible." The students had to explore wind energy, create an original story that featured an "invisible visitor," and create kinetic art that moved during the presentation.

The students created wind cars, kites, wind turbines, a sailboat, pinwheels, and wind spinners, said Ramona O'Hearne, who assisted the group. She is the grandmother of participant Zachary Harlow. Other team members were Corinne DeAngelis, Amanda Johnson, Alex Lambert, and William Mackie.

Some of the glowing comments from the appraisers were: "I really enjoyed the creativity with the spinners," and "amazing kinetic sculpture."

The 5th-grade group participated in the Fine Arts portion of the competition, titled, "In Disguise." It required the six students to present a nonverbal play in which a character used a disguise. The play also had to feature a "morphing mask" that changed appearance in front of the judges, as well as two decorative masks.

Unfortunately, the students were docked 60 points for a problem that left them without their background music — which was composed for the play by participants Sohrob Nyman, Mollie Johnson, and Kara Young, all on clarinet, Sara Day on trumpet, Josh Flaherty on sax, and Nicco Lembo-Volpe on flute and keyboard.

The group did, however, receive a "renaissance" award for the engineering of their "morphing mask," which judges called the "best [they] saw all day."

The group was assisted by parent volunteer Tony Volpe.