We’ve done it, we’ve made it to D.I and back once again. We’ve been through everything a team can go through in a few short months; the good, the bad, and the ugly, and have learned a lot about each other and what it takes to pull together a presentation. For me personally, I feel that a new light has been shone on the importance of teamwork and how crucial simplifying ideas can be. Yet, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard this all before in my other posts, so I’ve decided to do something different. Instead of just looking at what I’ve learned, I am going reflect on the entire D.I experience, and the educational value that it would have for anyone participating. I’ve always had the view that activities such of D.I can teach more in a few months than years of schooling can about teamwork and time management skills, and now there is a study conducted by Dr. Mark A. Runco to prove it. In this post, I shall be going over my experience with D.I leading up to Provincials, what I have taken away from it, and how these experiences are excellent opportunities for learning.

From Regionals to Provincials

After regionals passed, the last thing our team wanted to do was think about D.I. We had done well, successfully pulled our presentation together, and triumphed in the scoring (if you want to learn more about that, click here). Because of this, we didn’t feel the need to think about D.I. and did not speak as a group during spring break. I knew though that Provincials would come a lot sooner than we were expecting and began to get to work on two sections that were at fault of the points lost in regionals. This was the object removal and the functioning of the prop transformation, and I quickly came up with ideas to improve them. For the object removal, we had before two magnets at the bottom of our maze traveller, which although worked to pick up the object was not innovative. To improve this, I decided to build a crane which used a DC motor to operate. This was where I realized the importance of prototypes.

Our Regional Scores

I always believed prototypes were just something to help in your own building of a invention, but this situation made me realize that prototypes are also important for other people. When I pitched my idea, my teammates didn’t understand what I meant and wouldn’t consider my idea. This caused unnecessary conflict which could have been avoided if I would have taken the time to create a prototype to show my idea. In fact, I noticed this same problem in other groups and many good topics were never used because purely because people didn’t understand. Although it took some work, I elaborated on my plan and built a prototype, and saw other groups do the same. This is an excellent example of something that D.I can teach, and that’s how to elaborate on ideas and present them. 

After that I worked on other things we needed to improve such as our dragons wings, our soundtrack, and backdrops alongside my group and we saw some definite progress. Specifically, we added a more authentic Nordic feel to our backdrops and added a headpiece to Kai’s costume. We also revised the script and added more music and sound effects to the soundtrack.

By a few days before the tournament, we were nearly ready to present, but I felt we could still do a little better. My group however, was happy with what we had and we started to debate on wether or not we needed to do more. I felt my group was making a very poor decision and was about to go to the teachers about it, but then I realized something phenomenal. This was in fact, that I’m not always correct. I then thought about it some more, and found my group to be in the right that it would be better to go with what we had. This is a great example of another thing the study talks about, which is improvement of cooperation and teamwork. Now that we were all on the same page, it was time to prepare for…

The Big Day 

At 6:15 am sharp my parents woke me up and the longest day in the history of days began. Not only did we have our D.I. tournament, but afterwards we had to rush to the airport to get on our plane to Ottawa. Nonetheless , I was excited and ready to present. During the opening ceremonies, I got the opportunity to say the Destination Imagination pledge again and was happy that I got to start the great day of events (and the nickname Franzen). So off we went, doing last minute checks and preparations. Of course with all of the hustle and bustle of the morning, something had to have been forgotten, and we soon started to realize what.

Taking the pledge of Destination Imagination

For one, our prop which would be removed was no where to be found, along with the magnet used to remove it. Luckily with some quick thinking, we were able to find some cardboard, glue, scissors, paper, and some small magnets, and put together a nice looking fruit. This was a great example of Destination Imagination’s effect on creativity and critical thinking, which I noticed being used in countless teams during the tournament. Now things seemed to be going smoothly, but then we began to get ready.

As we were setting up, I began to put on the dragon wings I had built and gave them a test. However, the pulley systems were not working right and the wings wouldn’t lift. Then during our performance, our removal didn’t work and our maze traveller didn’t leave the maze. Afterwards, this left our team feeling upset for it felt like all the work we had put into our solution was for nothing. This was a hard time for me, because these fault happened by chance and I felt that we could have done a lot better if they would have just worked. Yet, I came to accept this was of no fault of my own nor my group, and there was nothing we could have done about it or could do about it now, and was able to let it go and move on. This is an example of something else the study talked about, and that’s the growth of persistence. This wasn’t our only first attempt in learning, and I’m sure won’t be our last, but no matter what we will keep going.

Afterwards, we ended up getting second place and I was okay with that. This is because to me, D.I. isn’t about the scores at all, but what you can take away from the experience. This can be good, bad, and sometimes weird, but in my opinion anything you learn will help you be better in the future. 

So What Does This Mean? 

This year’s tournaments didn’t go quite the way I thought they would, but I’m happy with our results and what I’ve taken from this. Going in, I understood what I needed to do to improve my teamwork, but I didn’t understand how to do this. I now know what I will do differently for projects such as Blue Sky, such as actually considering other’s ideas and simplifying my own. I also now understand the importance of thinking why you are doing something, so not to get caught up in the little meaningless details. Next year, my main goal is to focus on the essentials first and make sure the story is simplified.

Now D.I. has always been that thing that everyone loves to complain about. It’s probably the hardest time of the year because not only do you have a lot of work, but you got to manage it with a team. Yet, despite everything that has happened, I still don’t hate it. It may be the same thing every year, but in my opinion, it’s an opportunity to get better at specific skills. It may be hard, but it’s a good way to learn time management and working smart. I feel that activities such as this are the closest you will get to working with people in the real world, and think that all kids should get to experience that.