Creative Blog Title

What is DI?

Just so you know, when i say “DI” it means Destination Imagination, i will be using these two interchangeably, so WATCH OUT.

Before you read the rest of this post, watch this video. It will help you understand what Destination Imagination is all about.

That was video made by Destination Imagination, explaining what their mission is, and what the purpose of it is.

Now, here is what it ACTUALLY is. DI is group Project, that people from around the world participate in, either as a separate activity from school, or as a part of a school curriculum. In our case, it was the latter. There are 8 challenges. Scientific, Engineering, Technical, Fine Arts, Improvisational, Service Learning, and the Instant Challenge. Each group solves 2 of these challenges, one of them is going to be the Scientific, Engineering, Technical, Fine Arts, Improvisational, or Service Learning challenge, and the other challenge is going be the Instant Challenge. Group then present their solution to “Appraisers” (Glorified Judges) at the regional tournament, then if a group comes in 3rd or above for their challenge at regionals, they move on to the state (Affiliate) tournament. Then, if a group comes in 3rd or above in their challenge at the State tournament, then they move onto Global Finals in Tennesee. Now, I’m sure your wondering….

What IS my challenge?

The challenge my group was doing, was….. MAZE CRAZE!

Heres a video that we watched at the beginning of the project, explaining what my groups challenge was going to be:

So pretty much, my group was going to build a maze traveller, to go through the maze, pick up an object in the maze, have some kind of prop, that moves, or transforms, and have a story to go along with the maze traveller. Those were just the basics.

The members of my group, are Gaby, Anika, Emerson and Me.

Anika was the Most creative of the bunch. She made ideas like a Idea Generating machine. Her official jobs were: Performance Manager, Construction, and Storyteller.

I was the techie, and the art guy, but my official jobs were: Flex Team Member, (Helping with any little things here and there that the rest of the team needs.) and i am the lead driver of the Maze Traveller.

Gaby was the military general. She kept us all in line, focused, and she was pretty much the team captain. She was also pretty much the sole person to build the maze traveller. Her official jobs were: Task Manager, Materials Manager, Construction, and storyteller.

Emerson, he also helped out with little things here and there. but he really helped with costumes. His official jobs were Timekeeper, Score Manager, Construction, and Backup driver.

So we got to work…

How did we solve the challenge?

Our plan was: Well build a robot from scratch, and program it to navigate the maze automatically. I said over confidently; I CAAAAN DOOOO THAAAT!!!! i couldn’t though, so we decided to buy a remote control car, break it down till we just had the chassis and the electronics, and we decorated it with a mannequin head, spray painting it black, and putting moss on the shovel, which was gonna carry a special liquid, necessary for our prop transformation. Here’s a picture:

And we also added a magnet attached to a platform of popsicle sticks at the back of it, to pick up our object in the maze. (a metal key) so now it was time to present. Here is our full presentation:

Lets Reflect…

Surprises:

The Prop Transformation didn’t work at all! Our plan was to use the shovel on the maze traveler, to carry a liquid which we would pour into another liquid to make elephant toothpaste. But at the last minute before our performance, the shovel started to leak, and we tried to fix it with duct tape, but it didn’t work at all, so we decide to just pour it in instead.

Struggles:

• Before regional’s, i wasn’t taking much initiative in finding something to help the group with, but after regional’s, we had a team meeting with Ms.Maxwell, to talk about what we did well, and what we need to improve on, i acknowledged my problem with taking initiative,and i have been trying to fix that. and now, at the time of writing this post, i have realized that i have been paying more attention to the ideas of others, getting more ideas on how to help the group, and helping the group by using some of those ideas. I’m also communicating much better with group, and now i think we have a much more balanced workload, and i feel that  my group is much happier.
• I said over confidently; I CAAAAN DOOOO THAAAT!!!! (I couldn’t do that) Turns out, programming apps and websites for people, is very different than making a robot move automatically, i was not ready for that at all. And I’m upset that i led my group on like that, but i think that i was also in denial, and i thought that i really could. but i guess i was wrong, and to my group, if you reading this, I’m sorry.

But overall DI was a good experience, we got 3rd place, and we are moving onto Provincials! And soon you’ll see a blog post about that too! Till next time! Bye 🙂