Hello! This blog post is going to be quite the reflection. I’ve completed a project/challenge called Destination Imagination. If you’ve read my blog before you may remember this from my grade 8 year. But, this experience was very different then the last (and I’m about to show you why in this blog post). As a recap Destination Imagination, or DI, is a competition that is centred around thinking outside the box, or more with the box, to present a team create solution to a specific challenge in a category. My category was fine arts, so my team’s task was centred around the elements of fine arts, such as a detailed storyline (with a touch of technical elements as well). This challenge definitely took a lot of teamwork and thinking skills, but I’m proud to say I’ve improved on my collaborating, communicating and so many more curricular competencies/skills throughout this project. 

Firstly, I went into this project with the idea that it would be the same experience as last year, I was very wrong. The start of DI happened when my peers and I got spread out into our different teams. I got placed in the fine arts challenge, Tricky Tales, with Nolan, Claire, Mickey, Ewan and Luca. We all read over the challenge outline together and noted the main factors we would have to find to create a detailed solution (such as the illusion, story, etc.). After reading about the story section I got really excited to work on creating a trickster that would have to overcome a tricky situation. To complete this challenge we went through these main steps: Recognize, Imagine, Initiate and Collaborate, Assess, and Evaluate and Celebrate. 

The Recognize stage was about trying to understand and interpret the aspects of the challenge, this was clearly done throughout a test of each central idea associated with the challenge. I took many notes because I wanted to truly understand my challenge and contribute to my team in the best way possible. Once the test was done I felt that I was able to understand the key components of the challenge. Even though it doesn’t seem like a huge deal, I think knowing the challenge was the best pathway to completing the next step of Imagine.

The next step, Imagine, was probably one of the most important steps to success. At this point in this project I think we had to tap into the use of the curricular competency ‘Creative Thinking’ by generating and interpreting other ideas in extraordinary ways. We started or idea process by coming up with a story theme, steampunk. We generally thought that this would be a good theme because it took place in a futuristic world setting, but wasn’t on a really timeline and we thought we that would be interesting to work with. We then came up with several story idea’s that varied from this steampunk theme. 

After many idea’s, seriously a lot of ideas, we were able to choose a rough storyline. This storyline was about a trickster in a steampunk town, in which played tricks on people and froze time, facing a decision of what to do next (the tricky situation). I think this collaborative story idea was one of the many ways I improved my collaborating skill, by interacting with team members to find a result to our final goal. After the creation of the story was set we were able to focus on ideas for the rest of the challenge, specifically the costume transformation and the illusion. Our idea of the costume transformation came from a steampunk theme. We thought creating mechanical wings would showcase an enhanced storyline, which I think it definitely did. The other part of the central challenge was the illusion. If I’m being completely honest this part probably took the longest amount of time to create because we had idea that were quite exotic and would take a large amount of money and time. We originally thought we could play around with freezing time and we thought that if someone spills something the water could stay still, but that couldn’t happen because the way to do that required a special water (and we weren’t even sure if it was real). With that setback we thought of different ideas and we finally came to the conclusion that we just needed another object to freeze in mid-air. We then thought back to clocks (because that’s what our story setting is centred around) and we came up with the idea that a pocket watch should be floating in air by a string. With all of these ideas set we were able to start the next important stage: Initiate and collaborate.

To start of this stage we were aware that we needed to create a script, design props, create solutions, and much more. The first huge start we got to was the creation of the script. We were able to make the script during our time at Loon Lake. I think we all communicated efficiently to one another causing us to have a successful product. We then spent the duration of a few weeks bringing our designs to live, such as building the mechanical clock and sewing the costumes. I think we had to use some critical thinking skills to know what direct materials would have to be placed in certain areas of our set design, props, and overall solution. By the end of this stage I think we all had successfully communicated with one another to make sure everything was running smoothly so we could complete our team’s solution.

We then briefly move onto the Asses stage where we assessed our progress made. To achieve this stage we decided to do many rehearsals and the perform instant challenges. From these practices we were given helpful feedback that we were able to assess.

The time was coming quicker than ever and finally presented our challenge. When reflecting on our performance, I think we all collectively worked to present our challenge. We did have some aspects that we could’ve improved on (such as our communication skills toward the audience, by delivering our lines at a average pace). The next stage, Evaluate and celebrate is something I’m still doing throughout this blog post, I was able to also reflect on our achievements with my team. I also reflected on the final performance because I realized that I improved on my understanding of how to communicate confidently using strategies that show my attention and connection to my audience.

This experience with Destination Imagination has really shown my growth as a learner. When I reflect on my experience I realize that I was able to develop and understand three main curricular competencies. The area of these competencies I improved the most on were being able to communicate confidently and show a purpose, build relationships with others to reach a collective goal, and reinterpret others’ ideas in novel ways. These three key competencies are what I’ve learnt the most from Destination Imagination this year. Honestly, when I reflect, this experience will help me realize how important these skills are for my secondary and post secondary years. Overall, Destination Imagination is an interesting, enjoyable, helpful journey that I was able to take. 

Have you done Destination Imagination? If not, would you want to? Do you think you learned or will learn from that experience?

Alicia 😀 

 

Credits:

The members of the Grouchy Gears for being a wonderful group to work with. Thank you Nolan, Claire, Mickey, Luca and Ewan!

Another thanks to the PLP teachers for working with us at stressful times!

Lastly, thank you to all of the Destination Imagination volunteers!