Baby Bear ran from the Big Bad Wolf, and ended up in a candy factory, where he learned that running from your fears is like a box of chocolates -- you never know what you're going to get.
That's the kind of creative thinking to be displayed at the North Dakota Destination Imagination State Tournament Saturday at Northern Cass School near Gardner.
About 350 students and coaches are expected, said Louise Tegtmeier, a Northern Cass teacher who's helping coordinate the contest.
Forty-four teams in grades one through 12 from schools across the state will compete.
Part skit, part improvisation, "Destination Imagination is creative problem solving intended to help students think outside the box," said Carmen Rae Delaney, the program's state coordinator.
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During the tournament, students teams will present solutions to challenges designed to test and foster their ingenuity.
One challenge calls for students to combine fairy tales and a surprise ending to create a lesson learned.
The Destination Imagination Web site lightheartedly offers the response given above -- which combines Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood fairy tales with a popular line from the "Forrest Gump" movie -- as one solution.
Winners in the state competition Saturday go to the global finals May 21-24 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Saturday's competition, free and open to the public, runs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
To reach the Northern Cass school, opened in 1999, from Fargo-Moorhead, take Interstate 29 north to Exit 86 at Gardner and go six miles west.
"We'd like people to see our school," Tegtmeier said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Jonathan Knutson at (701) 241-5530
