Destination Imagination

Last Spring, a friend mentioned on Facebook that her son participated in a Destination Imagination tournament.  Intrigued, I did a quick internet search, was impressed with what I saw, and then promptly forgot about it.  

One October afternoon, Aubree came bounding home from school, "Mom! We learned about the coolest program at school and I really, really, really want to do it!"  And we'd come full circle.

In Destination Imagination, kids grades 3-12 organize into teams of up to 7 kids.  Then those teams choose a specific challenge to tackle in anticipation of a regional tournament where they compete against other teams.  The challenges are complex and detailed.  Here's the kicker - parents aren't allowed to help.  At. All.  Each team has a manager, who is allowed to ask general questions to encourage the kids to think deeply, explore options, and make plans.  But when it comes to completing tasks, making props or costumes, writing scripts, making decisions, even carrying items into the challenge, the kids have to do it all themselves.  

The only thing I helped with in this process was organizing the original team (which was a great mix of public and homeschooled 3rd/4th grade kids), and making sure Aubree had transportation to her weekly group meetings.  

They decided to call themselves "The Amazing Achievers," and chose a challenge that required them to:

- Research works of art created by artists who were born in a nation other than the team’s own.
- Theatrically present a comic strip that is based on a work of art created by the artist from the nation.
- Create three live comic strip panels.
- Create an ARTifact that is inspired by the work of art.
- Design and create a Caption Contraption for one of the comic strip panels.

In addition, they had to prepare to be presented with an Instant Challenge at the tournament. "Instant Challenges require teams to engage in quick, creative and critical thinking. At a tournament, a team will receive an Instant Challenge and the materials with which to solve it. The team members must think on their feet by applying appropriate skills to produce a solution in a period of just five to eight minutes."

Practicing an instant challenge

Admittedly, sitting back and watching the kids make their own (slow) decisions was incredibly painful at times and took tremendous amounts of self control.  We parents had serious doubts as to whether or not they'd be able to pull it all together in the end, but at the last moment, they did!

Working on their "caption contraption" (a mousetrap car)

The first Saturday in March found us at a local High School with hundreds of other young thinkers.  Aubree found her team and they went over last minute preparations.

Remember when I mentioned the kids had to do all the work themselves?  That included making their own costumes (no help with cutting or sewing or face painting).  I was impressed with what a few of them managed to accomplish.  

Heath was a bear in their skit

ZZ was a dog

Mark wisely brought books to keep Bryce and Thane occupied while we waited for Aubree's team's turn to compete.  

The skit the kids wrote was loosely based on Snow White, with the idea that later on she learns she has an older sister.  Aubree played the role of the older sister.  

Their entire skit was required to be under 8 minutes.  They finished at 7 minutes, 58 seconds!  They were a little hard to hear, but otherwise did great with their first year in the competition (they compete against other 3rd - 5th graders).

In the end they got 5th place out of 9 teams, which frankly was a bit better than we were expecting considering none of them had done it before.  Aubree is looking forward to doing it again next year, and I have to admit the experience seems to have really helped her be willing to take risks in her thinking and independently tackle challenges.