Destination ImagiNation - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Destination ImagiNation Inc. or DI is a creative problem solving organization for youth and adults. Destination ImagiNation's educational goals are to foster creative and critical thinking, to develop teamwork, collaboration and leadership skills, and to nurture research and inquiry skills involving both creative exploration and attention to detail. The program is open to students from elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

through college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

. Teams of up to seven members compete in various challenges that require complex thinking, problem solving, teamwork and creativity. The organization holds international competitions to encourage creativity in the world's youth. The Destination Imagination headquarters are located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Cherry Hill is a township in Camden County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township had a population of 71,045, representing an increase of 1,080 from the 69,965 residents enumerated during the 2000 Census...

History

The Destination ImagiNation program was created in 1999. It legally dissolved into the OM Association, Inc.

OM Association, Inc.

OM Association, Inc. , a 5013 non-profit corporation, was formed in 1982 by principals of the Olympics of the Mind program, the predecessor organization to Odyssey of the Mind . It severed its relationship with Odyssey of the Mind in 1999, and legally absorbed Destination ImagiNation during the...

during the 2000 and 2001 season. The resulting Destination ImagiNation, non-profit organization, has provided almost one million students with an enriching educational and extracurricular experience. Destination ImagiNation currently provides creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving programs with approximately 80,000 participants and 20,000 volunteers from 35 states and approximately 20 countries.

Teams

A DI team comprises anywhere from two to seven members and one or two team managers, who must be 18 or older to be head manager. The Team Manager of each team serves only as a facilitator; he or she is prohibited from assisting the team in its solution.

Though the team is often associated with a public or private school, community organization, or church

Church Body

A local church is a Christian religious organization that meets in a particular location. Many are formally organized, with constitutions and by-laws, maintain offices, are served by pastors or lay leaders, and, in nations where this is permissible, often seek seek non-profit corporate status...

, any group can register for competition. Groups must first purchase a membership through Destination ImagiNation, Inc. After that the team registers with its local DI affiliate

Affiliate

An affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.- Corporate structure :A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid...

. Teams also have the chance to choose their own name by which they are identified for the duration of the year.

Each team is registered to participate at a certain competition level, which is decided by the age of the oldest team member.

Rising Stars: grades K
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

-2 or 5–9 years old
Elementary: grades K-5 or no student above 12
Middle: grades 6-8 or no student above 15
Secondary: high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

or no student above 19
University: college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

, graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...

and armed forces
Armed forces
The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external aggressors. In some countries paramilitary...

with no younger students

Teams can include up to seven members No maximum restriction exists if the team is within the Rising Stars category. After being formed, each team chooses a Team Challenge, which it will work to solve until the first competition. The team works together to create a solution, to present it on tournament day.

Associations for U.S. states

International Affiliates

Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Curaçao
Denmark
Ecuador

Germany
Guatemala
Honduras
India
Israel
Italy
Malaysia
Mariana Islands
Mexico
Nicaragua
Peru

Poland
Puerto Rico
Scotland
Singapore
Soloman Islands
South Africa
South Korea
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Venezuela

Team Challenges

Each year, five new Team Challenges are written by a board of writers for the program, known as challenge DIvelopers. Generally, there is a challenge that relates to each of the following areas:

engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

/technical
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
technical
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

/theatrical
theatrical
structural
improvisation
philanthropic
rising stars (a non-competitive challenge for DI's youngest participants)

Each challenge includes aspects of each of these. The Team Challenge requires that the team write a skit

Sketch comedy

A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

of up to eight minutes in length (or six minutes for improvisational or nonverbal challenges) that creatively presents the solution to a problem presented in the challenge explanation. The goal of the challenge is that the team develops a solution that is integrally tied into the creative skit. Points

Score (gaming)

In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points, and events in the game can raise or lower the score of different parties...

are awarded not only for completing the challenge's requirements, but also for creativity, teamwork, and performance. Only registered team members can help with the challenge.

For most team challenges, up to 240 points are based on the Central Challenge (the team's creative solution to the basic problem, including their artistic presentation of the solution), and an additional 30 points can be earned for each of two Team Choice Elements, formerly called Side Trips (team-chosen stylistic elements of the presentation; e.g. costumes, props, music, etc).

Improv Challenges require team members to select skit elements (some pre-researched, some not) and create a skit in 30 minutes of "StuDIo" time. They then present their skit, which is limited to 5 minutes in length. This type of challenge diverges from the traditional script writing and acting to focus on quick thinking and team work. This segment is worth up to 300 points and does not feature Team Choice Elements.

List of Team Challenges

Program Year	A Technical	B Scientific	C Fine Arts	D Improvisational	E Structural	Rising Stars®	projectOUTREACH®
2011-2012	Assembly Required	The Solar Stage	Coming Attractions	News To Me	Hold It!	Built to Last	The World Canvas
2010-2011	Unidentified Moving Object	Spinning a Tale	Triple Take Road Show	Mythology Mission	Verses! Foiled Again!	Big Bug's Bad Day	Dynamic Networks
2009-2010	DIrect DIposit	DI-Bot	You’re Gonna Flip!	Do or DI	Breaking DI News	Weighty News	Band Together
2008-2009	Operation Cooperation	Instinct Messaging	ViDIo Lit Hits	Private DI	A New Angle!	Hidden!	Take Charge
2007-2008	Obstacles, Of Course!	Hit or Myth	DI've Got a Secret!	Chorific!	SWITCH!	TwisDId History
2006-2007	DIrect Flight	CSI-DI	Round About Courage	Switching TraDItions	Card-DI-ology	Make It New, It's Up To You
2005-2006	Back At You!	Kidz Rulz!	How’d tHAT Happen?	On Safari	The Inside DImension	1-2-Change-A-ROO
2004-2005	DIzzy Derby	Sudden SerenDIpity	Live! It's RaDIo DI!	IMPROVing Along	DIsigning Bridges	More to the Story!
2003-2004	Destinations in Time	The Plot and the Pendulum	Cartoon DImensions	Upbeat Improv	GuessDImate!	Surprise Trip!
2002-2003	ViDIo Adventure	Change in DIrection	Theatre Smarts	Once Improv A Time	ConnecDId	Lost and Found
2001-2002	It's Your Move	On Holiday	Dual DI-lemma	StranDId	The Art of Improv
2000-2001	IncreDIble TechEffects	Mystery Loves Company	Anonymously Yours	DInamic Improv	Triplicity
1999-2000	Fruit Roller Coaster & Eggploration	If Music Be the Food of Life... Play on!	Mixing Apples and Oranges	Instant Pudding Improv	It's Not Impastable!

Instant Challenge

An important part of every DI competition is the Instant Challenge (IC). An Instant Challenge is a new, previously unseen challenge, requiring a quick, improvised solution. To maintain fairness, every team at a tournament competing in the same team challenge and age level is given the same Instant Challenge. To maintain this surprise, Instant Challenges are conducted in a private room, with no more than one Team Manager for an audience, and the teams must pledge not to divulge the nature of the challenge until the competition is over.

Upon entering the Instant Challenge, a team is given a one-page description of its Instant Challenge and a set of items that the team's members may use. The challenge is read aloud, and then the time begins. Teams are given between two and ten minutes to create a solution; the typical duration is four to six minutes. A given challenge usually demands a dramatic presentation, a technical device or system, or both. The goal of the Instant Challenge is to exercise on-your-feet thinking, problem solving, and teamwork.

At a competition, an Instant Challenge score is typically one quarter of the total competition score.

Competition

In the spring, after months of preparation, each region

Region

Region is most commonly found as a term used in terrestrial and astrophysics sciences also an area, notably among the different sub-disciplines of geography, studied by regional geographers. Regions consist of subregions that contain clusters of like areas that are distinctive by their uniformity...

of each affiliate holds a "Regional" competition to select the best teams for each level of each challenge. The winning teams are then eligible to compete at the affiliate-level "State" competition, which is held a few weeks after the regional competition, differing between affiliates and regions. In May of each year, the Global Finals are held in Knoxville, Tennessee (although it is not a permanent location). This is the final competition level and is attended by those teams that advance beyond the affiliate (State) level. The 4-day event has an atmosphere akin to the Olympics

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

with pin trading, high quality competition, and teams.

At each competition, a team is required to perform two tasks. First, the team performs its eight minute solution to the long-term challenge. Second, the team is required to complete an Instant Challenge, an improvised performance ranging from completely dramatic to highly technical. The scores for the Instant Challenge are factored significantly into the final scoring of teams for their placing at the awards ceremonies, in which high-scoring teams receive ribbons, medals,trophies, or certificates and learn whether they will be advancing to the next level of competition, including the Global Finals.

Global Finals

Global Finals, the final competition level, has been held annually in May in Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

at the University of Tennessee

University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

since 2001. The first Destination ImagiNation Global Finals was held in Ames, Iowa

Ames, Iowa

Ames is a city located in the central part of the U.S. state of Iowa in Story County, and approximately north of Des Moines. The U.S. Census Bureau designates that Ames, Iowa metropolitan statistical area as encompassing all of Story County, and which, when combined with the Boone, Iowa...

at Iowa State University

Iowa State University

Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...

in May 2000. All participating team members stay in area hotels or in the dormitories of the campus each year. The competition is also held on campus. During the week of the competition, participants are encouraged to be involved in pin trading, an activity in which team members exchange their state or country's pin for the pins of another team's state or country. There is always an opening ceremony welcoming the teams to the Global Finals competition as well as a closing ceremony presenting results. Not only does the main competition take place at the university, but also recreational activities. In the Knoxville convention center

Convention center

A convention center is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees...

, pin trading and competitions take place. Each state, region, or team designs pins and brings them to the Global Finals.

External links

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