They're excited to be the first team to represent a Cupertino elementary school in the international competition, where they'll demonstrate the creative problem-solving skills they learned through the Destination ImagiNation program. They're looking forward to meeting students from 47 states and 15 countries at the finals, slated for May 21­24 in Knoxville, Tenn. And they really like wearing the medals they won at the regional and state competitions around campus.

The team—made up of fifth-graders Karan Chitnis, Dylan Daniels, Salman Husaini and Tony Parng and fourth-grader Daniel Ki—made their award-winning presentation to their classmates at a May 2 assembly.

During an eight-minute skit, they explained how they tackled their engineering challenge, which was to build a wooden structure connected in five places without using adhesives. The structure could weigh no more than 50 grams and had to be able to bear a load of up to 500 pounds. Each structure was judged by how much weight per gram the structure could hold. The Portal team's entry was a featherweight 23.3-gram chain of balsa wood circles that was able to bear 482 pounds.

Other Destination ImagiNation challenges are theatrically or technically oriented, but the Portal team members said they chose the structural engineering problem because fewer teams are entered in this competition, so their chances of winning were greater.

Their score was also based on the quality of their skit and on how they handled an instant challenge given to them right before they made their presentation. To demonstrate an instant challenge, team manager Karen Daniels gave the boys a dictionary just before the school assembly began. Daniels' son Dylan wound up wearing the tome as a hat at one point in the skit.

Karen and Dylan Daniels were also involved with Portal's Destination ImagiNation team last year, as were Ki and Husaini. That team took on the theatrical challenge but didn't qualify for the state competition, let alone the Global Finals. Daniels said the experience has helped her son learn how to utilize everyone's strengths when working in a group.

"The best thing the kids get out of it is team-building skills. They learn that there are multiple right ways to do things and that everyone has something to offer," Daniels said. "It builds self-confidence. I have kids from all academic levels on the team, and I don't hear anyone saying 'This is too hard' anymore."

When they join a Destination ImagiNation team, students sign a "declaration of independence" to guarantee that they, and not their adult team managers, will be the ones to complete all the work on their project. "All we do is drive them to the hardware store," said Fred Ki, Daniel's father. "We can give them critiques, but whatever they present comes directly from them."

Adults did teach this year's Portal team how to use a table saw and a drill press to make their wooden structure, but then they stepped back. "They just said, 'This is how you do it, and be really careful,' " said Parng.

The team started working on the project last October, meeting each weekend for three or four hours. As the regional competition drew nearer, the boys were spending 10 to 20 hours a week on the challenge. And they were on a tight budget: The rules of the competition allow participants to spend only $100 on their projects.

Portal school staff is committed to helping the team raise funds for its trip to Knoxville, which will cost about $1,300 per student. The team designed a pin bearing the image of a fire-breathing dragon, which the school is selling for $5 each. "You can wear them the week the team is gone to show support for their efforts," Principal Leslie Mains told students and teachers at the assembly.