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Destination ImagiNation® is an extra-curricular program that teaches students from K-college the building blocks of innovation: creativity, problem-solving and teamwork. Saturday, over 400 students from around the Granite State came to the University of New Hampshire for New Hampshire Destination ImagiNation’s (NH-DI) annual team Instant Combustion and Improv Workshop member training to fine-tune their skills prior the March creativity competitions.
“We had a lot of first-year NH-DI teams this year,” according to Emily Richardson, the event lead organizer and NH-DI board member. “It was exciting to see the student teams learn new ways to grow their teamwork skills and develop new ways to solve Challenges.” Richardson is also an alumna of the program.
DI features teams of up to 7 participants at the elementary, middle or secondary age levels. Teams of up to seven students solve Team Challenges that incorporate core school subjects with a focus that is technical, scientific, fine arts, improvisational, structural or social-learning. Teams choose one of six Challenges that seem interesting to the team. They also learn and practice “think on their feet” skills for the Instant Challenge portion of the competition.
“Teams realized that they’re doing well but can take it to another level,” According to Instant Challenge Appraiser and board member Doug Currie of Londonderry. “Teams found more ways to apply their skills to raise their score. For example, integrating a performance to make their Instant Challenge solution more cohesive (although the Challenge may not call for a performance). They were learning different ways to use teamwork and solve problems”.
Destination ImagiNation® is an extra-curricular program that teaches students the 5C’s of innovation. Participants build critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication skills and confidence.
Last year, over 1,500 students took part in NH-DI creative problem solving programs and were well represented at Destination ImagiNation Global Finals, where the top teams compete in creative problem solving.