 Imagine that you and a few friends are given a project to complete in an eight week period, without help from anyone outside the team...
The project involves designing and constructing a technical device that must move from point A to point B under its own power. Imagine that you must also write, produce, and star in a story that involves the technical device. You need to make props, costumes, and everything else, and package it into an eight-minute Presentation. Now imagine that you and your teammates are 10 years old… and you are hearing the thunderous applause of an enthusiastic audience as you present your completed project!
If you think this is far-fetched, you haven’t been to a Destination ImagiNation® Tournament! Our teams work on – and solve – Team Challenges like these, completely on their own.
Why Team Challenges? Our Team Challenges encourage development of Creative Problem Solving techniques, teamwork and creative process over a sustained period of time, usually eight to twelve weeks. Our Challenges are designed to be:
- Fun to solve
- Academically-based (corresponding to education standards) and include a research component
- Focused on one or more of the following areas:
• Technical/Mechanical Design
• Structural/Architectural Design
• Theatrical/Literary/Fine Arts
• Scientific Exploration
• Improvisation.
Each year teams of two to seven members select one of five competitive Challenges. With the guidance – but not help – of a Team Manager (who serves as facilitator, not coach), the team creates an action plan and works together to create everything needed for their Presentation.
Challenge A: Obstacles, Of Course!
Focus:
Technical Design and Construction, Innovation and Design Process, Mathematics, Experimentation, Theater Arts, Teamwork
The Destination:
Where This Challenge Will Take You!
Young or old, big or small, we all face obstacles in everyday life. Things are always getting in our way! Overcoming these obstacles, and how we do it, helps all of us grow and reach our goals. To solve this Challenge, your team’s vehicle will need to go over, under, around and through obstacles that it encounters on its path. Calculate carefully: your final score will depend on the choices your team makes – to overcome obstacles, of course! It’s all up to YOU!
Points of Interest! Your team will:
- Design and construct an Obstacle Course, with from three to ten different Obstacles.
- Design and construct a Vehicle that will travel the Obstacle Course. The Vehicle will score points for the number of Obstacles successfully overcome.
- Create an original, non-verbal Story about overcoming Obstacle(s). The appearance of the Obstacle Course should be linked to the Story’s theme.
- Create two Side Trips and integrate them into the Presentation.
Challenge B: Hit or Myth
Focus:
Science, Theater Arts, Research, Teamwork, International Studies
The Destination:
Where This Challenge Will Take You
Is there really a Loch Ness Monster? Is it possible to stop a shark attack by punching the shark in the nose? If Rapunzel really “let down her hair” could someone actually climb up her hair into a tower? Myths, folk tales and urban legends exist in many nations around the world. How do we know whether they’re truth or fiction? By using the Scientific Method! So get on your lab coats - now it’s your chance to find out, with the help of science, whether it’s a Hit or Myth!
Points of Interest! Your team will:
- Create and present a theatrical performance with an original Story about a Myth, Urban Legend or Folk Tale. The Story must be set in a Nation other than your team’s own.
- Design and carry out a Myth Investigation that investigates fact(s) about the team’s Myth. Present the results of the Investigation as part of your Story.
- Create a Myth-Ecol Replica from the team’s chosen Nation, using recyclable materials.
- Create two Side Trips and integrate them into the Presentation.
Challenge C: DI’ve Got a Secret!
Focus:
Playwriting, Theater Arts (Design, Construction, Costumes and Set Pieces), Optical Physics, Teamwork
The Destination:
Where This Challenge Will Take You!
What’s my secret? I’ll never tell! But your team gets to tell all. Nothing is as it seems as your secret unfolds. Sometimes people or things appear to be one thing, but they turn out to be something very different. Your team will turn a secret into great entertainment and dazzle everyone with an optical illusion and set pieces that connect to become part of the big surprise. Will you have the audience on the edge of their seats? Will everyone beg to know more? We’ll all have to wait….until your secret is revealed!
Points of Interest! Your team will:
- Create and present a theatrical performance of an original Story about a Secret.
- Create a Masquerade Character that appears to be something or someone until its true identity is revealed.
- Integrate a team-created Optical Illusion into the Story.
- Design and create three Set Pieces that will be connected to form a new Set Piece or Backdrop.
- Create two Side Trips and integrate them into the Presentation.
Challenge D: Chorific!
Focus:
Improvisational Acting, Story Development, Theater Arts, Teamwork, Sound Design
The Destination:
Where This Challenge Will Take You!
It is just a simple, ordinary chore. You’ve done it a thousand times without a problem. Not this time! Now you have to overcome obstacles, and famous figures of the past and present suddenly appear. With an artful sound design to accompany you on your mission, you must use your keenly honed improv techniques to tackle a chore no longer ordinary, but extraordinary! Only you can conquer everything that gets in your way and complete your chore. Only then will you be Chorific!
Points of Interest! Your team will:
- Create a six-minute Improvisational Skit about an ordinary, randomly selected Chore in a 30-minute timed period at the Tournament.
- Attempt to overcome two randomly selected Obstacles, both related to the Chore, in your Skit.
- Create a Sound Design that will be presented live during your Skit.
- Demonstrate one Improvisational Technique during your Skit.
- Integrate a Famous Person, randomly selected from a list of people the team has previously researched, into your Skit.
Challenge E: SWITCH!
Sponsored By:
 Focus:
Architectural Design, Structural Engineering, Construction, Research, Innovation and Design Process, Mathematics, Theater Arts, Teamwork.
The Destination: Where This Challenge Will Take You!
Did you ever have to make up your mind? Choose one thing and leave the other behind? Not this time! You don’t have to make up your mind – you get to try something two different ways! You will test your Structure’s strength one way, and then…SWITCH! You test your Structure another way. You will also pull some other SWITCHES to show how one item can do different jobs! So get ready - SWITCHING has never been so much fun!
Points of Interest! Your team will:
- Design and build a Structure made completely of Wood and Glue and test it for strength by stacking weights on it in two different Orientations.
- Have a two-minute Stop Time while the team removes the weights after the first test and places the Structure on a different side for the second test.
- Research a manufactured item, called a SWITCH! Item that can serve more than one purpose.
- Create and present a Story in which the team demonstrates two different purposes for the SWITCH! Item.
- Present a Freeze-Frame scene as part of the Story during the Stop Time.
Create two Side Trips and integrate them into the Presentation.
Rising Stars Team Challenge: TwisDId History!
Focus:
Imagining Possibilities, Storytelling, Research, History, Geometric Shapes, Performing in front of an audience, Working with others
The Destination: What is our Challenge?
Your Challenge is to choose something that happened in the past and change it. You will make up a Play that will tell the story of how your team changed history. Your story will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You will have characters in your Play, and you will also make up a song. You will make a Magical Prop that is made up of different shapes. The Magical Prop will help you change history.
Rising Stars!® Teams 2007-08
Reaching new Heights with Young Learners
Teams wishing to present their Rising Stars! Team Challenge at a Destination ImagiNation® Tournament/Event in the upcoming program year will need to either be attached to a Destination ImagiNation® membership or purchase a Rising Stars! Program Kit (Volume I, II or III). Rising Stars! teams will be required to have an active/paid membership number to present at a Destination ImagiNation® Tournament/Event. Destination ImagiNation® Memberships and Rising Stars! Program Kits are available at www.ShopDI.org.
Click here for a Spanish version of these Team Challenge previews.
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