The DI Regional Competition was held this past Saturday and everyone did such a great job! I am happy to say that all 4 of my kids are going on to the State Tournament! This was Tyler and Trevor's first year in DI, Alicia and Ashley's second year. They are all so excited! Unfortunately I didn't get very many pictures (and half are kind of blurry)....I was video taping, so I had other people take pics for me (Alicia did a good job with the Rising Star pics...but someone, who shall remain nameless ;), not so good with the other pics...at State I think I will have them video tape and I will take the pictures!
Alicia's team in Challenge C - Triple Take Road Show (fine arts) took 2nd place out of 12 teams!
Ashley & Trevor's team - Big Bug's Bad Day (Rising Stars) were given the option of going on to State, which was new this year (last year it was a lottery draw), so we jumped on the opportunity.
Now we are just crossing our fingers for Globals!
You may be wondering exactly what Destination ImagiNation really is (I know I had no clue when I first heard about DI and wish I had more information on it so my kids would have had the opportunity to participate earlier) so here is a link to the DI website (www.idodi.org).
But here is a brief rundown of the program....
In DI teams solve an open-ended challenge. The teams are tested to think outside of the box, work together and come up with creative, original solutions to satisfy the requirements of their chosen challenge.
The competitive teams (Elementary, Middle School, High School levels) have 5 different challenges available to choose from at the beginning of the season and the categories are technical, scientific, fine arts, improv, or strucural.
Rising Star teams are made up of K-2nd graders and are non-competitive. This gives the younger kids a chance to learn what DI is all about and go through the same experiences as the competitive teams.
After working on their solution for a few months, the teams present their solution to appraisers at a tournament and are scored on how well they met all the requirements of the challenge as well as on their creativity and teamwork. In addition to their main challenge, they must also participate in an Instant Challenge (usually 4-10 minutes in length). This is task based (ex. build a structure out of given materials that will hold a golf ball), performance based (ex. present a performance in which your team uses 6 imaginary props of your choice to rescue themselves from an avalance), or a combination of the two. The Instant Challenge is also scored on how well they met all the requirements of the given challenge, their creativity and teamwork.
At the 3 competitive levels, the 1st and 2nd place teams from each challenge move on to the next level of competition. There are 3 levels of competition...Regionals, State and then Globals (which, as it's name implies, has teams from all around the world).
I really believe in this program and what it does for the kids. So much so, that I decided to be a Team Manager this year, and not to just one team, but two. Next year I plan on returning as a Team Manager, and, hopefully again, to two teams.
Have a great day!
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