It’s almost time to fire-up the creative problem solving process and your Destination Imagination teams for the 2012-2013 season. Here’s a quick overview of DI:
- Destination Imagination (DI) is an educational non-profit that teaches the creative process to 100,000 students each year across grades K-12.
- New Hampshire Destination Imagination (NH-DI) has been offering creative problem solving programs to New Hampshire schools since 1982.
- Destination Imagination takes place across 48 states and more than 30 countries including Canada, Turkey, Korea, Guatemala, Poland, China, India, Great Britain, Brazil and Singapore.
- A 2011 study by the University of Virginia Curry School of Education found students who participated in DI significantly outperformed non-DI students on standard assessments of creative thinking, critical thinking, and creative problem solving. The follow-up study confirms it!
WHO
Up to 7 members can be on a team, and students from grades K-12 participate. Each team needs an adult Team Manager. Team Managers help students stay on track but do not directly help the team develop their solution to the DI Challenge. Team managers are often faculty members or parents.
WHAT
There are six new DI Challenges to choose from each year. Each of the Challenges is developed by a team of educators and industry experts who target a particular area of the curriculum and its related standards of content and performance. The areas of focus include: Technical, Scientific, Fine Arts, Improvisational, Structural and Service Learning. There is also a non-competitive Early Learning Challenge that allows kids to build social and problem solving skills.
WHEN
Each season takes place from September through May. Teams typically spend 3 to 4 months developing and practicing their Challenge solutions.
WHERE
Tournaments typically take place in local schools. And, while most schools run DI as an after school program, some school districts incorporate the program into their electives curriculum. In New Hampshire, this often occurs after school and/or on weekends. It depends on the team.
WHY
Teams in our program improve in creative thinking, critical thinking, and creative problem solving. Our kids experience the creative process, develop new friendships, and they learn to work together.
HOW DO I GET INVOLVED or LEARN MORE?
You can review the registration steps, or for more information you can contact our Executive Director, Jill Schoonmaker at 603-868-2140 or by using this form.