WELCOME!! Contact Info

• Ms. Lydia Headley

– PfISD GT Specialist

– District DI Representative

• Ms. Gayle Chin

– CES teacher

– DI Board Member

What is DI? The DI Experience

• Instant Challenge!!!

• Tall Tower

– Your TASK is to build a free-

standing structure as tall as

possible.

ABOUT US WHO WE ARE

• Student teams solve open-ended

Challenges and present their

solutions at tournaments

• Teams learn important life skills

like time management,

collaboration, conflict resolution,

and creative and critical thinking

• Imagine the Possibilities

OUR IMPACT WHO WE ARE

• 200,000 participants

annually

• 1.5 million alumni

• 38,000 volunteers

worldwide

• 48 States & 30

countries

• Up to 7 members can be on a team

• Students from kindergarten through university level

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!

WHO PROGRAM OVERVIEW

• There are seven Challenges to choose from each

year

– Technical, Scientific, Fine Arts, Improvisational,

Structural and Service Learning

– Early Learning Challenge known as Rising Stars

WHAT PROGRAM OVERVIEW

• Each season takes place from

September through May

• Depending on the Challenge,

teams typically spend 2 to 4

months developing and

practicing their Challenge

solutions

WHEN PROGRAM OVERVIEW

WHERE

• The team’s solutions are assessed at regional,

state or national tournaments

• Every year, local volunteers help run 200+

tournaments around the world

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

• Teams learn

–higher order thinking skills

–critical thinking and collaborative problem solving

• DI participants

–experience the creative process

–develop new friendships

– learn to work together

WHY PROGRAM OVERVIEW

• Teams choose one of seven Challenges

• After weeks spent creating and developing

their solutions, they go to a tournament

• Top-scoring teams advance, and the top tier

goes to the Global Finals tournament—the

world’s largest celebration of creativity

• 15,000+ attend Global Finals

HOW PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Includes school districts located in the counties of:

• Lampasas

• Burnet

• Williamson

• Travis

• Hays

• Caldwell

• Bastrop

CAPITAL REGION AREA SCHOOLS

• Lee

• Bell

• Coryell

• McLennan

• Falls

• Limestone

• Fayette

• Lavaca

• 372 Teams participated in the 2015 Regional Tournament

held in Pflugerville, TX, largest region in Texas!

• 48 Teams advanced to the State Tournament held in

Dallas, TX

• 21 Capital Region teams advanced to Globals in

Knoxville, TN

• Over 3000 teams competed at tournaments across the

state

• At Globals, 9 of our teams finished in the top ten, 16 teams

placed in the top 25 and no teams placed below 34th. We

had a first place team, a 2nd place team and 1 team with

the highest Instant Challenge score!

*In Texas, DI is HUGE!!

CAPITAL REGION 2014-2015

• Technical: Pace of Change

• Scientific: In Plain Sight

• Structural: Musical Mashup

• Fine Arts: Get a Clue

• Improvisational: Close Encounters

• Service Learning: The Meme Event

• Early Learning: Change in Direction

CHALLENGE PREVIEWS

2015-2016

The world is full of changes, both big

and small. So grab the wheel – let’s see

them all!

• Design and build a vehicle able to carry at

least one team member across the

presentation site multiple times.

• Change the vehicle propulsion system and

the vehicle movement method during the

presentation.

• Create and present a story about change.

The story will include a change in a

character.

A: TECHNICAL TEAM CHALLENGES

Now you see me, now you don’t! But

wait…what’s the twist??

• Research the many ways that camouflage is

used by organisms in nature.

• Showcase camouflage research in the

visible appearance of an organism.

• Create and present a story with a plot twist

that is caused by the use of camouflage.

• Apply camouflage methods to an original,

team-designed and created set piece or

prop.

.

B: SCIENCE TEAM CHALLENGES

Hold it together and let it play out in this

musical mashup.

• Design and build a structure that both

supports weight and is a musical instrument.

• Play a musical solo using the structure as a

musical instrument.  

• Tell a story with at least one musical

character.

• Integrate the story with the weight

placement testing of the structure.

E: STRUCTURAL TEAM CHALLENGES

Whodunnit? Reach back in time to get

a clue!

• Present a mystery story set on Earth in

a team-chosen time period before 1990.

• Discover, live on stage, which of the

three suspect characters is responsible

for the mystery.

• Include a TechniClue that helps solve

the mystery.

• Present in the style of traverse staging.

C: FINE ARTS TEAM CHALLENGES

Newsflash! Stranger things WILL happen!

• Research Challenge-provided confined

spaces.

• Create and perform a four-minute

improvisational presentation within a

confined space.

• Show how characters work together to

address a news flash.

• Integrate a mysterious stranger and a team-

created miscellaneous prop into the

presentation.

D: IMPROVISATIONAL TEAM CHALLENGES

Grumpy cat will be even grumpier when

you out-MEME him!

• Use the creative process to identify, design, plan,

and carry out a project that addresses a real

community need.

• Plan and carry out at least one community event

that is designed to help meet the project goal(s).  

• Create an effective meme to help meet the project

goal(s).

• Create a live presentation that highlights the

project and the impact it made on the community.

SERVICE LEARNING TEAM CHALLENGES

North, south, east, or west. Hmm…which

way is best?

• Learn about maps and how they are helpful

to people.

• Create a play that is about a journey your

team is on.

• Make a change in direction at some point

during your play.

• Make a map to help your team on your

journey.

EARLY LEARNING TEAM CHALLENGES

• At a tournament, a team will receive an

Instant Challenge and the materials with

which to solve it

• The team members must think on their feet

to produce a solution in a period of just five

to eight minutes.

• Instant Challenges are performance-based,

task-based, or a combination of the two.

• Instant Challenges are kept confidential until

the day of the tournament.

AT THE TOURNAMENT

INSTANT CHALLENGES

• At the tournament, teams will solve two types of

Challenges: Team Challenges and Instant Challenges

• Teams will perform their Challenge solutions to a

group of Appraisers.

• Appraisers are local volunteers who have been

trained to assess the Challenges.

• Instant Challenges require teams to engage in quick,

creative and critical thinking.

APPRAISINGAT THE TOURNAMENT

• Stage 1

– 2-4 weeks: Team building; Understand the

Challenge

• Stage 2

– 2-4 weeks: Generate Ideas; Conduct research

• Stage 3

– 2-4 weeks: Put it all together

• Stage 4

– 2-4 weeks: Prepare for tournament

Program Season TIMELINE

• Team Managers

– Facilitate Destination Imagination teams; often a

parent or a community member

• Assistant Team Managers

– Assist with organizing team; help with instant

challenges

• Appraisers

– Serve on a panel with other appraisers at

tournament watching teams present and

awarding points for solutions

What Can I Do? VOLUNTEER ROLES

• Trainings for beginning, advanced and Rising Stars

managers will be held on the following dates:

– October 3, 8:30-12:30, at Naumann Elementary

in Cedar Park

– October 18, 1:15-5:15, at West Ridge Middle

School in Austin

– November 8, 1:15-5:15, at Dessau Middle

School, PfISD

*Training is optional, but extremely helpful!

Managers need to attend only one session!

Team Managers TRAINING

• Program materials available:

– September 1, 2015

• Deadline to register teams for regional

tournament:

– December 7, 2015

• Deadline to order t-shirts for tournament:

– January 11, 2016

• Late registration deadline:

– January 11, 2016

IMPORTANT DATES 2015-2016

• March 5, 2016

• Vista Ridge High School, Leander, TX

TOURNAMENT 2016

• Talk with your DI campus contact to get started

• Obtain a team membership ID number; PfISD is

furnishing each elementary campus with two or more

team memberships

• Go to the DI website to login and download program

materials using the membership ID

• Meet with team members and agree on practice

times/locations

• Start practicing!!

How Do I Get Started?

• National Destination ImagiNation website:

– http://www.destinationimagination.org/

• Capital Region website:

– http://capital.texasdi.org/

Helpful Information RESOURCES