Destination Imagination (DI) is a non-profit, volunteer-led, cause-driven organization. The purpose is to inspire and equip students to become the next generation of innovators and leaders. Annually, they have seven new standards-based Challenges in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), Improv, Visual Arts, Service Learning, and Early Learning. Each Challenge is open-ended and enables student teams to learn and experience the creative process from imagination to innovation. Academic tournaments take place around the world where teams have the opportunity to present their solutions to trained appraisers.
This year's challenges were:
Challenge Previews
Your team has searched high and low and it seems like there’s nowhere to go. Now it’s time to Dig In and get to the Object(ive). Are you in, or are you out?
Points of Interest
- Design and build equipment to detect objects in their hiding places.
- Use team designed and built equipment to take the objects out of their hiding places.
- Move objects across the finish line.
- Create and present a story about a technology that detects things a human cannot sense without help.
Have you ever been inside a volcano? What about a hydrothermal vent? I hear the top of Mt. Everest is lovely this time of year! Quick, grab your gear because we are Going to Extremes.
Points of Interest
- Explore an Extreme Environment that exists in our universe.
- Present a Story about characters who adapt to survive in the Extreme Environment.
- Design and create Extreme Gear that is demonstrated by using Technical Methods.
- Design and create a depiction of the Extreme Environment.
Two forces. One structure. Will your team rally to prevent destruction OR crumble under the pressure?
Points of Interest
- Build a structure that will be tested against two forces at the same time.
- Design a prop that will be assembled during your presentation. The prop’s parts must fit completely inside a measured space.
- Create a story in which tension is a threat to stability and is overcome in some way.
We all know Mona Lisa smiles, but can you make her giggle? Maybe, if you’re really good, you’ll even make her Laugh ART Loud.
Points of Interest
- 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.
When the past meets the present, you’ve got to MAKE IT WORK. Why? It’s Pandemonium!
Points of Interest
- Create an original five-minute Improvisational Skit
- Develop the interaction between a character from the past and a contemporary character.
- Show how those characters work, using the time period, their occupations and skills, to deal with Pandemonium.
- Use stage makeup to create, develop, and/or enhance one skit character.
OKAY. Here are the rules of the game. Find a community need and put the pieces together. Will you pass or will you play?
Points of Interest
- Use the creative process to identify and select at least one real community need.
- Design and carry out a Project that addresses the real community need.
- Use Play to meet the goal(s) of the Project.
- Use a team-created Elevator Pitch to enlist at least one Community Partner.
- The team will create a live Presentation that features the Project.
The circus is coming! The circus is coming! Under the direction of your team’s Ringmaster, you’ll need to find your balance and act it out.
Points of Interest
- Create your own circus!
- Learn about circuses and the role of the Ringmaster
- Learn about balancing things
- Learn about geometric shapes
- Explore how your team works together to make decisions about the three acts of your circus performance.
All teams have an instant challenge to do at competition on top of their challenge.
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.
In a world with growing cultural connections, increased levels and types of communication, and a new need for real-time teamwork and problem solving, the ability to solve problems quickly is becoming increasingly critical.
Instant Challenges are performance-based, task-based, or a combination of the two. Although each Instant Challenge has different requirements, all Instant Challenges reward teams for their teamwork and the creativity of their solutions. Instant Challenges are kept confidential until the day of the Tournament.
My oldest daughter's group selected the Structural challenge and my youngest did the Fine Arts. It is hard to describe simply.
