Hi, welcome back to my blog. This post is about the Destination Imagination provincial tournament that we competed in this year. Last year DI was cancelled because of covid but this year we got to compete in person again. This year I had a big group that consisted of Eliot, Erin, Dries, Randy, Ryder and Jordan. Our challenge was the technical challenge. In this challenge, we had to make two different devices that could overcome three different hazards. We also had to make these devices and hazards fit into a story that we presented at the tournament. In DI there is also an instant challenge in which our group gets a completely random challenge in which we have to present to the judges in a completely separate room. Unfortunately, I am sworn to secrecy about my group’s instant challenge until may so I cannot tell you about my instant challenge in this post. Here is my DI performance from this year.
To prepare for DI there are many things that we had to do as a group. First, we had to read the rules of our challenge and make sure we knew what the requirements were. We even had a test about the rules of our challenge. Once that was finished we assigned roles to each person I was the communications manager of our team. Then we got to work on making a solution for our challenge. We brainstormed ideas for a long time trying to figure out what kind of story we could use and what devices and hazards would be included. After a while, we realized that we could use one of our old engineering projects as one of our devices. In Grade 9 some of us built trebuchets in our engineering class so we used the one that Randy made. Along with the same topic, we also decided to make a ballista. Then we had to come up with a story around those devices. We came up with an idea to make a parody of the hit tv show Squid Game and call it Lobster Game. This is how we finally decided on the name of our team we chose to name ourselves Lobster Game. After deciding on our story and devices we needed to think about the 3 hazards we needed our devices to overcome. Part of the challenge was to make the hazards daring and risky to earn more points. In the end, we decided to make tunnels that the devices would have to go through, barriers that the devices would have to knock down, and uneven terrain that the devices would have to go over.
Now it was time to create. We used teamwork to create all the aspects of our challenge within the time we were given. We decided as a team who do each aspect of our solution. I was assigned to make the tunnels, randy made the ballista, dries made the wheel, Jordan made the teleprompter, Ryder and Eliot made the uneven terrain and Erin made the poisonous barriers. We mostly made our obstacles and props at home so when we were at school we could work as a team and fix anything that needed fixing as well as work on our story. We all used our skills to complete our assigned aspect. Erin used her dancing experience to choreograph a victory dance which she would perform with randy. To make the ballista Randy used his engineering skills. Dries used his outstanding creativity to design and create a wheel that we would use to select the devices given to each team.
While we were creating our solution we were also practicing for our instant challenge. Since our instant challenge is given to us on the day of the tournament. Although we could still practice fake instant challenges. To do this our teacher would call each group out into the hall one by one and present us with an instant challenge and our group would go through the instant challenge just like it was a real one. After all the groups went our teacher would score us and tell the class which group was the winner. Although these weren’t real instant challenges they helped me and the rest of my group prepare them for the real thing. During these practices, we practiced our teamwork and communication to complete the challenge.
Finally, it was time to present our solution at the tournament in front of the judges. As we all got to the tournament we were sent to the gym to wait for us to be called in. As we waited we rehearsed our presentation so we could get it as good as we could before the performance. Finally, after our group got delayed we were sent into the area in which we would perform infringe of judges and a live audience. We were all nervous to present but we just went for it and it went pretty smoothly except for at the start when Ryder nocked over the devices. Although that did matter in the end when our team eventually ended up finishing 3rd. We were happy to finish on the podium. We were able to work as a team to create a creative solution to all the problems thrown our way. If I could redo this experience again I would take more initiative to do more work earlier on so I didn’t have so much last-minute work.
In conclusion, I think participating in DI teaches me lots of skills that I would normally practice if I didn’t have the opportunity to participate in DI. I’m proud of what my group and I accomplished and how we placed in the tournament. Our time management could’ve been better at times, but I think our team worked very well together to complete our solution. I’m thankful that I’ve been given the opportunity to participate in DI this year.
