Hello!

DIying. Not Dying. There’s a difference, however small.

Just kidding. Sort of.

This post is late. I am disappointed in myself. I thought I had broken my late post streak. Alas, sometimes even I succumb to procrastination. Quite frequently, actually.

Anyways.

This post is about Destination Imagination! You may be wondering why I am writing this. After all, I already wrote a different post that was also about Destination Imagination. If you haven’t read that, do it now, or else this one will make zero sense.

In fact, even after the Regional tournament was finished, that was not the end. There were still Provincials to attend to! And boy, was there a lot to fix.

If you need a quick refresher, here is our regionals video:

We started by going over what still needed work in our solution. Here is a list.

  • The invention circuit. At regionals, the circuit that Quinn built broke. We decided that we needed to revise it, and make it so that it was delayed and didn’t start beeping as soon as someone flipped the switch. He talked to Mr Gross (our Scimatics teacher) about finding some of the parts we needed.
  • The impact scenery frame. Our old PVC one was flimsy and looked ugly (I was a bit indignant when Ms. Willemse said that) so we discussed making a new one out of wood.
  • The impact scenery pulley system. The original just straight up sucked. It barely worked and felt like it was going to break any second. Nate suggested using carabiner clips to attach to the frame.
  • The story. The story wasn’t super clear, so we decided to add more Narrator parts for Annie.
  • The dance. Nobody was very enthusiastic while performing the dance that Indy choreographed. We added ‘practice’ to the already extensive list of tasks ahead of us.

So, pretty much everything needed help.

We assigned each other tasks and prepared to go away on spring break. And then COVID-19 happened.

Provincials was cancelled. PLP was jubilant.

But of course, Ms. Willemse had a few tricks up her sleeve. It was soon announced that we were to have an online Destination Imagination tournament, where we would present our solutions over Zoom from the safety of our houses, since school was cancelled too.

Of course, I panicked. Our entire solution was at school; the invention, the impact scenery, the backdrop- and we hadn’t been practicing, since we assumed that there wouldn’t be a provincial tournament.

In retrospect, I should have known better. I am in PLP, after all.

My group met over FaceTime to discuss our options. We decided that it wouldn’t be worthwhile to make impact scenery – it was super complicated and we didn’t have any of the necessary materials. Instead, we decided to use the Virtual Backdrops feature on Zoom to create the background. Annie scoured the internet for the perfect images.

Meanwhile, we considered the invention. Nate needed it at his house, so it was decided that he would have to make it. He used a shoebox and pieces of scrap cardboard to recreate our original invention. Quinn used Scratch to make a simple timer program that he could play off his phone.

Everyone had forgotten the dance. We set Quinn, Indy and Nate to work watching the regionals video in order to relearn it. It was challenging for everyone to be in sync, since there was lag on Zoom so everyone heard the music at different times. We just pushed through it, though.

Our second team choice element, the lighthouse painting, was at school as well, on the invention. We decided that it would be a good idea to redraw it and use the drawing as a background instead of having it on the invention. I used the Sketches app to create the drawing.

Here it is. I added curtains to it to make it seem like it was a window.

The drawing that I made for one of our Team Choice Elements.

The other backgrounds were just off of the internet. We probably broke all kinds of copyright laws, which I don’t feel great about, but at the same time we were on a two day schedule. We needed to choose our battles.

This was the backdrop that everyone used.

Nate and I used this one during the job interview.

Quinn made this new one for the very end.

After practicing a few times, we were ready. We joined the Zoom call, and Ms. Willemse told us we could start.

My group performing our dance on the Zoom call.

We did pretty well! Quinn’s Scratch program didn’t work properly for some reason so Annie had to play a sound effect again, but other than that it went smoothly.

We also completed an Instant Challenge. I didn’t talk about this in the last post because I was worried about breaking the rules (we weren’t supposed to talk about it), but now that DI is cancelled I feel like it’s probably ok. Nobody reads this blog, anyways.

I guess I should tell you what an Instant Challenge is. The group goes into a room by themselves with an Appraiser, and they would give us a random challenge. This could be anything from building a tower of shoes to performing a play about penguins. The group would be given a time limit, and then would be judged for the quality of their solution and their teamwork.

I’m not entirely sure if I’m allowed to talk about the challenge still, but I will say that we did very well. We came up with ideas quickly and talked them through (If you’ll recall, this was one of our biggest shortcomings during Regionals), and everyone contributed. I’m pretty proud of how far we’ve come.

I think that concludes this post! We did better than I could have hoped on both our main solution and our Instant Challenge, so I’m happy with my group and myself.

More Student Blogging Challenge will be coming soon, so keep an eye out for that.

Stay safe and healthy!

Cheers

Evelyn 👩🏽