Whenever anybody in the Snazzy 5 says the word DI, people automatically ask this question:
“What’s DI?”
And this is how we always respond:
“Destination Imagination.”
“What’s that?”
We’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t know what Destination Imagination, or DI is. We are writing this article to get the news of DI out in the world.
Destination Imagination is a non-profit organization designed to help kids grades Kindergarten through College learn STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) as well as valuable lifelong skills such as working in a team, thinking creatively, solving problems, exploring curiosity and interests, and, overall, gaining the skills to thrive in the 21st century.
History:
Destination Imagination was founded in 1999, when Destination Imagination broke off from Odyssey of the Mind. Originally two companies, not yet named Odyssey of the Mind and Destination Imagination, were working together to create Odyssey of the Mind. Then DI disagreed with how Odyssey of the Mind was running it and broke away to create their own
program for kids, Destination Imagination.
Differences between DI and Odyssey of the Mind
Challenges:
Every year, there are 6 different challenges for your team to pick from. All the challenges focus on a specific area such as Technical, Engineering, Fine Arts, Improvisation, Service Learning, and Scientific. This year, our team, The Snazzy 5 is doing the Fine Arts challenge, Picture This. There will be criteria for the challenge that you must meet and be scored on. For example, our challenge, we must select a photograph from anywhere, create a skit about it, and we have to have an:
Unseen character that causes things to happen
A photographic technique from a list of 12 that causes our photo to change (ex. zooming, infrared, multi-exposure, etc.
A “snapshot” where we recreate our chosen photograph
There is also a Rising Stars challenge for kids in kindergarten. After that, you are sorted into Elementary, Middle School, and High School for the competitions.
The Technical challenge “The Big Fix” focuses more on problem and solution, this year being to build an invention to solve a problem, Scientific “First Encounter” with science, this year being a skit on introducing an animal to a habit, Engineering “In The Cards”- building, this year being to make a bridge out of cards and duct tape that will go over a barrier. Improvisation “To The Rescue” is where you research something and then do a skit about it on the spot- this year is to research superpowers in comics and movies. Service Learning “It’s About Time” focuses on a problem you can address in YOUR community and a skit about a character in a race against time. Fine Arts (above) is more about theater and acting.
2019-2020 DI Challenges:
Competitions:
During DI, you will have 2 major competitions. The first one will be your state competition. In other states you must go through a couple competitions to get your state competition, but Pennsylvania does not have that many teams. During that, you will compete against DI teams in your state, your age, and your challenge. For example, let’s say there are 100 DI teams in Pennsylvania. And there are only 25 teams in your age group. And then only 5 of those imaginary teams are in your challenge. Most of the time there will be about 3-4 teams in each challenge. The second tournament is if you win first place in your state competition. You will advance to Global Finals. Globals is where you compete against all the teams in your age group with your challenge. This might sound like the state competition, but it is very different. In Globals, you might compete against 50 or more teams, mostly from the US, but some from other countries!
Starting a Team:
The first thing you need to do DI is a team. Teams can be a mix of any age as long as they are in the same age category. (Elementary, Middle School, High School) You can have between two and seven people on a team. You will also need an adult to be your team manager. The team manager is only there to keep you on track and make sure you don’t set anything on fire. If they or any of your parents give you any ideas, you are not allowed to use them. The team manager also helps you with money management, instant challenges, and filling out tournament paperwork. Learn more about starting your own team at https://www.destinationimagination.org/
Positive Effects of DI:
Destination Imagination can have many positive effects that can impact children for life. As we mentioned before, DI builds valuable lifelong skills, such as working in a team, and learning STEAM. When kids do DI, they must work together with a team to produce a solution to the challenge they face. Doing this helps them work together with people, now and later on through their life. They also learn STEAM, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. STEAM is important now for the expanding technology knowledge, and later on in life.