Transcript Destination ImagiNation

Destination ImagiNation
Team Manager Workshop
Dee Urban, Instructor
(With help from Bruce Urban &
Ro Jordan)
Fall 2000
With grateful acknowledgment to:
Victor Tom-MA, Jill Schoonmaker-NH, Cindy Watty-NV
Destination ImagiNation
Workshop Agenda
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Check-in
Video
Warm-up
Destination ImagiNation overview
Team Managers
Questions
Destination ImagiNation
• The most important
course in education.
A Small Sample of DI Orgs.
MAOM
Volunteer organizations all over the US and the world
The Heart of Destination ImagiNation
Students learn Creative Problem-Solving (CPS) skills
– Brainstorming & Divergent Thinking
– Exploring Open-Ended Questions (no single right answer)
– Improvisation
Fills the gap between what students learn in school and
skills they need in the workplace
Students develop strategic life skills
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Teamwork/ Communication
Planning/Budgeting
Research & Experimentation
Presentation & Sales
Organization & Management
Colleges & employers are looking for students who have developed these skills
Kid-Powered & Team-Driven
• Destination ImagiNation differs from
kids’ sports and other student
organizations in that it
– Provides a supportive environment in which
all ideas are team-generated
• Kids have ownership of solution
• They make mistakes & learn from them
• Students learn strategic life skills
– Adult team managers are only there to
manage details of the team – adults do not
tell students what to do, how to do it or
when to do it
Team’s solution is generated without interference
What Business is Saying…
“Destination ImagiNation participants
• STAND OUT among our new employees.
• Their presence, confidence and ability to lead
• put them YEARS AHEAD of their age and experience.
• Destination ImagiNation is making a difference
• in the high-tech future on a global basis.”
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--Roger Garriock, IBM Canada director of e-commerce development
Destination ImagiNation’s outstanding participants
Warm-up Activity
• In teams:
• Generate a list of as many types of jobs you
have held throughout your lives in two
minutes. The jobs do not have to be PAID
employment. Anything goes.
Choose three to five of the most
unusual or interesting jobs
• What kinds of collective skills do we have
in this room?
• What kinds of things could we create as a
large team using all the types of skills that
are learned from doing those jobs?
• What kinds of skills would you ideally like
to have on a single Destination ImagiNation
team?
Destination ImagiNation
Components
• Central Challenge
200 Points
• Side Trips
100 Points
• Instant Challenge
100 Points
• Total
400 Points
IMPROVISATION
A component in ALL
Challenges!
• Acting, speaking or devising something
without rehearsal or forethought.
– Mime
– Improv
• Used in Destination ImagiNation
– Instant Challenge
– Improv Item in each challenge
– Dinamic Improv Challenge
Typical DI Year
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Team building exercises
Understanding Challenge
Brainstorming of solutions
Working, refining, and more refining
– Technical elements, props, costumes, script...
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Constant practice for instant challenges
Local trips for junk and supplies
Practice dry-run (town presentation)
Tournament time
And lots of snacks
Rough Schedule
TEAM
MANAGER
TRAINING
INTRO
DI
MEETING
FINALIZING
SOLUTION
LOCAL
& PRACTICE
TOURNAMENTS
INSTANT CHALLENGE
STATE
TOURNAMENT*
GLOBAL
FINALS*
SEPT
OCT
NOV
DEC
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
* Top teams
advance
• Learning to work as a team
• Instant challenges
• Understanding the main challenge
• Brainstorming ideas
• Research & experimentation
• Creating the presentation
• More instant challenges
• Finalizing, refining solutions
• Props, artwork, costumes, scripts
• “Crunch” time, rehearse
• And more instant challenges
Time flies when you’re having fun
The DI Program has Two Components
1."Instant Challenges"
Teams must solve a “surprise” challenge in a short time frame. Points
are awarded for successful completion, novel solutions and
teamwork. Kids learn creativity skills, divergent and convergent
thinking, risk taking, time awareness, cooperation and have FUN!
2."Team Challenges”
Teams use research, art, technology,
performance, imagination and more
as they tackle one of the
5 Team Challenges, open to all levels.
The solution can take from several
weeks to several months to develop
and refine. Scoring is defined
in the challenge and includes addition of an
improv item and side trips (special item/skills team defines).
Destination ImagiNation challenges students in many different ways
2000-2001 Central Challenges
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Mystery Loves Company
Triplicity
Anonymously Yours
Dinamic Improv
IncreDIble TechEffects
Side Trips
A Side Trip is an extra excursion that adds to the
enjoyment, excitement, understanding, and
“wow” factor of the Team Challenge!
These are the rules about Side Trips:
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Teams must showcase three DIFFERENT Specialties
A Side Trip cannot be an item required in the Central Challenge
A Side Trip cannot be part of an item that is already being scored
More than one side trip CAN be demonstrated at the same time
(example: A team-created song and dance can be scored for both the song and
the dance as long as the Appraisers can identify each)
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Each Side Trip must be a single, stand alone item which can be
appraised on it’s own merits
See the October 2000 issue of
“CreativityNews”
All About Side Trips Issue
DI Challenges for 2001
• Mystery Loves Company
– Craft a mystery story
– Create a communication device
– Conduct a scientific experiment
• Triplicity
– Create a 3-part weight-bearing structure constructed
from balsa wood, paper, glue
– Tell a story of a journey
– Design/build 3 separate travel containers
Problems have focus of Performance or Technical or Both
DI Challenges for 2001
• Anonymously Yours
– Select an anonymous work of art
– Research the culture and time period
– Create a performance that tells the story of
“Anonymous”, the artwork & the culture
– Develop a technical element (uses technology
appropriate in that time period)
• DInamic Improv
– Improv problem utilizing research in:
• Famous Innovators, Cultural Performers, Important World
Landmarks
Problems have focus of Performance or Technical or Both
DI Challenges for 2001
• IncreDIble TechEffects
– Research technology of
Special Effects
– Create an original tale
– Design & incorporate 4 special effects
Challenge Presentations (excluding DInamic
Improv) include an Improv Item and three
side trips
Go to www.destinationimagination.org for full descriptions
Learned Skills
WOOD-WORKING
SEWING
MAKE-UP
• THINKING ON YOUR FEET
• ELECTRICAL
• ARTWORK
• WRITING
• COMPOSING
• PRESENTING
• WELDING
• DUCT TAPING
• AND MORE . . .
PLASTERING
MECHANICAL DEVICES
Lifelong skills
Student Eligibility
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All students are eligible & benefit from DI students need not be identified as gifted
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Student must
– want to participate
– commit to the team
– be willing to take risks & learn from others
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Each student brings a variety of skills and talents
to the team
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A part of a team, students will
– listen, evaluate and build upon teammates’ ideas
(compromise)
– construct & refine the solution
– present the solution
– have fun
Each team needs students with a variety
of skills and talents
No formal academic requirements
Building a Team
5 to 7 students form teams (typically in the fall/winter)
They compete in one of these categories:
– Primary Level - Grades K-2 or 5-9 years old
– Elementary Level - Grades K-5 –OR- no student reaching the age of 12 by June 15
– Middle Level - Grades 6-8 -OR- no student reaching the age of 15 by June 15
– Secondary Level - Grades 9-12 –OR- no student reaching the age of 19 by June 15 and not a high
school graduate at the time of Affiliate competition
– University/Military Level - All team members must be enrolled full-time in a college/university
or on active Military duty.
Each team has one or more adult team managers
Students complete against teams in their age category
The Creative Problem Solving
(CPS) Process
• Creative Thinking Phase
• Generation of Options
• Critical Thinking Phase
• Focusing/Evaluating of Options
HEADLINES!
• 3 minutes
• Each team member - Find 1-5 words that
could make a headline that is related in
some way to being a team manager
• Share your headline
• CREATIVITY is in all of us!
AFTER THE CHALLENGE
• What does a good team sound like?
• Did anyone on your team come up with a
good idea that you would never have
thought of yourself?
• Did your team include people with
different personality “styles”?
• Did any of you feel sort of apprehensive or
uncomfortable in the first moments of
brainstorming?
Rules of Brainstorming
• Rule 1: Withhold Judgment of Ideas
– Allow students to conceptualize freely. All
ideas are “good” ideas.
• Rule 2: Encourage WILD ideas!
– Encourage team members to be
imaginative! Try to make each other
laugh!
Brainstorming
• Rule 3: Quantity counts!
– Encourage the team to push itself to come up
with ideas until it runs dry. Encourage team
members to not accept the first few ideas.
• Rule 4: Piggyback on the ideas of others!
– Encourage team members to use “SCAMPER”
and put a new twist on ideas already given
Creativity is influenced by:
• FLUENCY
– The ability to generate a great number of ideas
• FLEXIBILITY
– The skill that allows us to produce a variety of
ideas
• ORIGINALITY
– The talent to think of unusual ideas
• ELABORATION
– The process of filling in all the details
The SCAMPER Technique
for Brainstorming
• S Substitute
• P Put to Other Uses
• C Combine
• E Eliminate
• A Adapt
• R Reverse
• M Modify
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Magnify
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Minify
A-Lo-U
• A Focusing/Evaluating Tool
• A Advantages
• Lo Limitations and How to Overcome
Them
• U Unique Features
– (Wouldn’t it be nice if…?)
A-Lo-U Tool Activity
For Focusing Options
• Sample Option: Our team will use only
recycled materials in its solution.
• Advantages
• Limitations and how to overcome them
• Unique Features or Potentials
INTERFERENCE
• Team Manager’s Guide - pages 18-20
• Interference vs Basic Resourse
• Where to go for resources:
• www.destinationimagination.org
• www.bfn.org/~nyom
SOLVING THE CENTRAL
CHALLENGE
READ
Rules of the Road
The Central Challenge
The Team Manager’s Guide
RULES OF THE ROAD
• Cannot solve the challenge without the
rulebook
• Cannot “appraise” the challenge without the
rulebook
TEAM MANAGER GUIDE
• Pages 21-23 Strategies and helpful
instructions on working with the team to
generate their Challenge solution.
• Team Manager
– Positive Points
– Time Commitment
– No Interference
TEAMWORK
AND
TIME MANAGEMENT
CHARACTERISTICS OF
GROUPS THAT WORK
• Members trust each other
• Goals are clear and determined by the
members
• Members feel as if they belong
• There is willingness to hear new ideas and
suggestions
• Members identify with each other’s
experiences
GROUPS THAT WORK
• Conflict is recognized and discussed with the intent to
resolve it
• Members accept responsibility for group functions
• Communication between members is clear and direct
• Members use each other a a resource and as support
• Members define and understand ground rules
TEAM BUILDING IDEAS
• Help each other be
right - not wrong
• Look for ways to
make new ideas work
- not reasons why they
won’t work
• Help each other
achieve and take pride
in each other’s
progress and growth
• Try to maintain a
positive mental
attitude
• Do everything with
enthusiasm - it is
contagious
• Whatever you want give it away!
• Have FUN!
TEAM MEMBERS NEED TIME
TO:
• Get to know each
other
• Trust each other
• Feel they belong
• Respect each other’s
strengths and
weaknesses
• Learn to make
decisions together
• Accept that all their
ideas will not the final
ones used
• Start to take pride in
the team’s solution
FORMS
• Tournament Data Form - 5 copies needed
– found on the last page or two of each challenge
– to help Appraisers know what to look for
• Declaration of Independence - 2 copies
– One for Performance Judges, one for Instant
Challenge Judges
• Expense Report - 2 copies
• Clarification Form
Special Awards
• DaVinci Award
For outstanding Creativity
• Renaissance Award
For outstanding skill in engineering,
design, or performance
• Spirit of Discovery &
Imagination Award
For spirit, sportsmanship, volunteerism,
teamwork
Don’t Panic….
You are not alone!
• Dee Urban
Phone: 675-7566
E-mail: [email protected]
• Our State Website
http://www.bfn.org/~nyom
• Our State Newsletter
Mailed to School DI Coordinator & also on website
• Our International Website
http://www.destinationimagination.org
“Imagination
is more important
than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited.
-Albert Einstein
Destination ImagiNation develops the most important skill in life