A time-traveling Jeopardy skit and a custom-built aircraft to save Christmas netted two Dartmouth Destination Imagination teams spots in the state tournament this weekend.

The JeoporDI team — made up of Quinn Elementary School students Brady Jackson, Matthew Afonso, Luke Violet, Annie Witzig, Elena Sobran, and Elizabeth Larkum — took second place in the “Game On” competition at the regional tournament on March 9 in Shrewsbury.

Destination Imagination is a nonprofit program open to kids in kindergarten through college. It gives a group of students a multifaceted challenge they must work on for several months, before presenting their solution at tournaments.

Groups choose from a set of challenges: technical, scientific, engineering, fine arts, improv, and service learning. It is entirely student-led — although there is an adult manager, students do all the work and come up with their own ideas and solutions.

JeoporDI chose the fine arts category, called “Game On,” and had to write and perform a skit incorporating research of a game. Students chose Jeopardy!, and incorporated time travel into their skit — the contestants each “time travel” to the past, present, and future.

“All of the different time periods are on the set of Jeopardy!,” Sobran said.

Students also researched facts about the show to present, and discovered some surprising facts. Teammates was surprised to learn Alex Trebek was not always the show's host: Art Fleming hosted versions of the show in the 1960s and 1970s.

The rules required the students to build an electronic gadget to incorporate into their skit. They created a wearable buzzer system: Each time a contestant pressed their buzzer, a corresponding light lit up on a device on Violet”s arm. He hid inside the contestants’ desk, and popped out of the box to signal a buzzer press.

The "Smashing Building Green Bean Carrots" team, made up of Quinn Elementary students Sophia Cadiuex and Melanie Khatib and DeMello student Llilian Screponi took first place in their “On Target” technical challenge.

The team had to create an aircraft capable of carrying and dropping a payload. Students also created a story around their aircraft.

Team manager Matthew Cadieux explained his students made the airplane out of foam and used parts removed from a radio-controlled car to build a wireless controlled drop mechanism. The airplane was being piloted by "Santa Bunny," in reality the Easter Bunny, who had to cover for Santa after he became sick and could not deliver presents.

With the regional competition set for Saturday, both teams are busy preparing their shows.

Scoring is done based on three components: the central challenge, team choice elements, and an "instant challenge" — a closely guarded secret challenge that will be announced during the competition and will require improvising to complete.

A successful finish could earn the teams a trip to Global Finals in Kansas City in May.