Have you heard of the Briarcliff Bears, Ossining’s Biggy Smalls or Destruction Industries? No, they’re not rappers, or wrestlers, instead they are the three local teams of kids whose creative, collaborative solutions to specific challenges have won them places at the Global Finals of this year’s Destination Imagination [DI] program, starting May 22 in Kansas City.
DI is an international, project-based, non-profit educational community that encourages innovation, teamwork and creative problem-solving. Each year it sets seven different challenges – Technical, Scientific, Fine Arts, Improvisational, Engineering, Service Learning, Early Learning – which teams of young people, divided into four age ranges, from pre-K through to university, tackle with support from their team managers. Founded in 1999, DI now operates in 40 US States, 6 Canadian provinces, 27 countries and 6 continents.
“DI is all about finding ways for students to learn that are different from the directed way they learn in school. In DI we really like to focus on setting up some challenges that the teams want to solve. Nothing happens alone in DI. It’s all teamwork, where a team of two to seven kids are working on their solution, which is a lot closer to how most people work in the real world,” says Josh Diamond, DI’s Chief Executive in New York State.
In fact, the goal is not to get to the tournaments, which begin with Regionals, proceed to the Affiliate Tournament and peak in the Global Finals. “DI’s real special sauce, if you will, is in the journey from starting work on the challenge in say September and October and presenting at the first tournament in March, that’s when the learning is really happening, ” Diamond explains.
Nevertheless, triumphing in the tournaments and reaching the finals is a huge achievement for the teams, as well as a chance to meet other finalists from all around the world who have solved the same challenges.
All three of the local teams are at elementary level. Ossining’s Destruction Industries chose and solved the Technical challenge. The team had to build a device that would stack items in an assembly zone, then knock down the items and get them into a target zone. They took second place at the state finals. “They’re a very strong team and I’m expecting good things from them at Global Finals,” says Diamond.
The Ossining Biggy Smalls solved the scientific challenge, this year titled Worlds Beyond, which was about exo-planets, planets in other solar systems. In fact the team chose to solve two challenges, both the scientific and the fine art challenges simultaneously. “They did pretty well in both but only advanced in the scientific challenge.”
The Briarcliff Bears solved the Service Learning challenge, which involves doing a project in your community that somehow makes a difference – not just academic or theoretical, but physical. The Bears’ approach was ecological and was covered by the River Journal in an earlier issue. [Insert link here.] Diamond expresses himself excited at this first-year team. “I’m very proud of how well they did. Kudos to the team manager but even more so to the team itself, to the kids.”
The Bears’ achievement underlines how accessible DI’s program is, how a parent can become a team manager, receive training and enable their children to take part. We wish all three local teams huge success in May in Kansas City.
> destinationimagination.org
