If you know a creative child who enjoys hands-on learning, experimenting, building, performing and working with their peers then listen up! Hopedale Destination Imagination is currently forming teams for the 2018-2019 season. You may have heard people talking about Destination Imagination, or DI, but unless you’ve participated on a DI Team you may not know exactly what Destination Imagination is all about. The short explanation is that Destination Imagination is a fun, team-centered, extra-curricular activity where students form teams with their peers to solve in-depth Challenges that highlight their different interests, skills and abilities and then they present their solutions at a Regional Tournament.
Destination Imagination is a global organization with more than 150,000 students, from 48 states and 30 countries, participating each year. DI is an educational non-profit that connects students with unique opportunities to create, discover, learn and collaborate in a supportive, team environment. DI does this through a project-based learning experience that applies the creative process across seven different Challenge types – Technical, Scientific, Engineering, Fine Arts, Improvisational, Service Learning and Early Learning. While working on solving these Challenges students acquire and practice the skills needed to thrive in school, future careers, and beyond.
While the Destination Imagination program has been around for more than 30 years, the Hopedale Destination Imagination program began in 2000 with two Teams formed by Hopedale Memorial School teachers Michael Aw and Suzanne Dunn. Now, approaching its 19th season, the Hopedale DI program typically sends between 7-10 Teams to the Regional Tournament.
Each DI Team is made up of 2-7 Team Members and has an adult volunteer, known as a Team Manager, who facilitates the weekly meetings. In the fall, at the start of the DI season, Teams meet and decide which Challenge they’d like to work on for the season. Once the Team chooses their Challenge they strategize on how they can use their unique talents, abilities and skills to come up with a Challenge Solution. The Challenge Solution must meet the requirements set forth in the Challenge. In March, Teams present their Challenge Solutions at the Regional Tournament. Each Team’s solution is appraised and scored by volunteer judges known as Appraisers. Teams with high enough scores can earn a chance to present at the State Tournament, held annually at WPI, and can then compete to advance to the Global Tournament in Tennessee.
Educators, employers and parents often speak of the real life skills that students can gain while participating in Destination Imagination. Throughout the season there is a lot of collaboration, planning, budgeting, experimenting, compromising, reevaluating and revising. Much like projects that engineers and scientists face in their careers, the process is filled with creative thinking, brainstorming, accomplishments and setbacks. By the end of the DI season, each Team has worked together to accomplish a difficult goal and has a lot to be proud of.
Due to the success of the program, Hopedale Destination Imagination now has more interested students than it can accommodate. The program needs more adult volunteers to help it grow and succeed. If you’re interested in forming a team or learning more about the program please email the Hopedale Destination Imagination Town Coordinator Kate Poitras at katepoitras@gmail.com. Visit the website www.hopedaledi.org to learn about our upcoming events and informational session. Check out the Hopedale DI Facebook page at “Hopedale MA Destination Imagination” and follow along on Instagram @hopedalemadi or Twitter @di_hopedale
Issue Date:
September, 2018
Article Body: