So recently there has been a “second wave” of DI that seems more important than the last. This is DI provincials. So if you don’t know what DI or destination imagination is you can check out my previous post about it which explains what it is and how we did for the regionals. After the regionals all of the groups in PLP decided on going to the provincials. The provincials are all of BC and even some DI teams from the Yukon and Alberta. The provincials are way more serious because there are way more teams and everyone has had a second chance to refine their project.
When we had our first tournament we tried hard but overall we didn’t do that well. When we got our results back we had a lot to improve. The first thing we had to work on was our balsa wood structures. In regionals our structures didn’t comply with the rules because they were to big. For provincials we made new ones that were smaller. To make them we used several engineering techniques we learned such as cross beams, I beams and Y beams.
The next thing we had to work on was our groups script. We had to work on it because in regionals we didn’t make our story clear enough. Our new story kept many of the same elements the previous script had but it had different characters, location and international issue. After that we had a pretty solid presentation but decided on last changes to make our presentation the best it could be.
Some changes we made include remaking our giant tv frame so it was sturdier and it looked better. Another change we made was remaking the maps and the diagrams. Before we redid them they looked unofficial and inaccurate. After we remade them they could have been real maps! After all of the changes were made and all of the props tweaked we only had one thing left to do, we had to learn our scripts and memorize our presentation. This last process was easier said than done for some of our group members. I personally didn’t have to many lines but some of our group members had upwards of fifteen large lines to memorize. After several classes of rehearsing our lines and our movements over and over again we were finally ready to present on our big day
On the big day my team woke up before seven O’clock to get all the way down to Kwantlen secondary for the opening of ceremonies. Every thing went smoothly so we now had several hours to practice our script and rehearse the whole performance. One hour before our presentation we had to check in our weight holding structures. Our structures were fully up to code and ready to go. Everyone in our group was excited and ready to go. Finally we got on stage and when the judges said go we started. Our script throughout the whole performance went well and everybody remembered all of their lines. I was the one putting the weights on our structures so when the time came I put on my safety glasses and started adding weight. Our structures held a lot of weight, in total two 25 gram structures held one hundred pounds.
After our main presentation which all considered did very well we had about two hours before our instant challenge. One annoying but exciting thing about instant challenges is you don’t know what they are going to be so you cant really practise or prepare yourself very much. Once we were called to the room the judges gave us our challenge and we worked hard as a team to the best of our ability. Unfortunately I cant say to many details because I signed a form that said I wouldn’t say anything about my instant challenge until midway through May. After this we were all done we were all very relieved and happy and ready to go home. Before we could go home we had to attend the award ceremony. Unfortunately i couldn’t go to this because my mom had a bad stomach ache and we had to take her home.
Although many of us (including me) said we didn’t enjoy D.I. During the process I think it was a very good experience and everyone in our class learned so much from it. We learned skills like engineering and building while also improving our every day skills like leadership and time management. At many times D.I. Was stressful and hard and annoying but all along it was teaching us good skills for the future. Bravo D.I. I will see you next year.