Destination Imagination Teams Gather to Practice Instant Challenges

More than 100 Destination ImagiNation students from around the region gathered last week in Medfield to practice Instant Challenges the concepts of which they might see at the regional tournament in March.

Destination ImagiNation –affectionately known as “DI” by its team members – “promotes these skills through its global problem solving program and tournaments for students of all ages, as well as the customized creativity and innovation programs it develops for other organizations and corporations of all kinds,” according to www.madikids.org.

“What’s really eye-opening is for the new members or coaches,” said Maureen Doctoroff, organizer of Instant Challenge Day which has been held in Medfield for many years.  “It’s very exciting for them.  They get to see some very experienced kids and some very young kids who aren’t used to doing these sorts of challenges.” 

The program is student-led with adults providing only general supervision.

“It is so different from any other kid program other there relative to the arts or sports or music because it’s kid-directed,” said Doctoroff.  “There are very few things out there that allow kids to make all the decisions and I think that’s what makes DI phenomenal and unique and such a positive experience.”

Twenty-four teams (each with seven students and two coaches) from Medfield, Dover, Mansfield, Millis, Needham, Norton, and Wayland met to learn about the Instant Challenge.

The Instant Challenge is always kept confidential until the day of the tournament so the December practice session is good preparation for the March event.   

During a challenge, teams are assessed on their ability to assess and use available materials in creative ways, knack for improvisation, collaboration of efforts, engineering skills, flair for performance, time-management strategies, and teamwork.

This year, teams attempted were challenged to make a quilt, make a mascot, make a mask, and giftwrap a basketball using only one hand each and limited supplies – that was a challenge. 

“This is our first year and I think we did really, really awesome,” said Talia Newfield, 10 of Team DInamite of Needham.  “We found some of our strengths and we learned we have to work on some of our teamwork.” 

“I loved it, it was really cool.  I can’t wait until the tournament,” said Maddie Mollerus, 11.

Claudio Sesso, 10, said DI is a good activity for her because she has a lot of imagination; and teammate Nora Brown, 10, said she liked the engineering challenges in which they had to build something.

Alex Putprush, 10, said DInamite “stepped up to a whole new level” after the competition “because we understand what this is going to be about…It really helped us.”