Practice Instant Challenge: Contradictions

On this Saturday between posts I wanted to post a practice Instant Challenge for you to do with your team. This is a 'Crissy' original written to simulates those Instant Challenges that your team will encounter in a tournament setting.  I will be posting challenges from time to time - either original ICs that I write or links to other sources so that you always have fresh challenges in your back pocket to pull out when you need them.

Like anything else, your team will get better at Instant Challenges with PRACTICE! As a Team Manager  you should do an IC at every team meeting to help your team prepare for tournament.  Try this one below at your next team meeting! And remember- email me your questions or comments at: ask.crissybuhr@gmail.com - I look forward to hearing from you!

~Crissy

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Contradictions (or Do as I Say…. Yeah Right!)

Challenge: Your team is to present a humorous PERFORMANCE telling how you get one character who always does the opposite of what (s)he is told to do something YOUR way (without realizing it)!

Time: You will have up to 4 minutes to use your IMAGINATION to plan and practice your PERFORMANCE, and then up to 2 minutes to present your PERFORMANCE.

The Scene: Have you ever met someone who always does the opposite of what anyone tells them to do no matter what? How would you get that person to do something you wanted them to do without them realizing that they were doing so? Your team is to present a performance where you use your CREATIVITY to get one character who always does the opposite of what they are told to do something YOUR way!

Materials:

A piece of paper and a pencil will be available for your team to use as you plan and present your PERFORMANCE.

Scoring:

You will receive up to:

A. 30 points for the humor of your performance.

B. 30 points for methods used to get the character to do something YOUR way.

C. 20 points for the creativity of the PERFORMANCE.

D. 20 points for how well your team works together

Team Formation

Forming a DI team can seem like a daunting task.  Perhaps your son or daughter wants to do DI and you are going to be the Team Manager and are wondering how to fill out the team. Perhaps you have a group of kids at your school that want to DI and you have to figure out who to put on which teams.  Keep reading for some ideas and suggestions of things to look for when forming a Destination ImagiNation team.

A DI team can have up to 7 team members.  Only the original team members are allowed to work on the team challenge solution. You may have fewer than 7 members on your team but you must have at least two members. Once your team has started working on the Team Challenge solution you may add team members up to the maximum until you register on the Wisconsin DI website (registration deadline is in January) for your first tournament. You may not replace a team member after you have reached 7 team members. If a team member quits, moves away, etc they are still part of the team as they have contributed to the solution in some way. Team members may not be added between tournaments. This information and more is outlined on page 9 of the Rules of the Road found in your Program Materials. 

Anytime you throw a group of kids together they need to learn to become a ‘team’- they don’t just start that way no matter how perfect a balance or mix you feel you have. This is part of the DI process and may take all season.  Getting the kids to trust each other, listen to each other, figure out what each other can bring to the table and how to work together is going to take some time and as a Team Manager you play an integral part in helping to facilitate this process (we’re not going to talk about this here, but teambuilding is definitely something that I will be talking about in the future so check back). 

The process for forming a team may be different depending on where you are. No matter how things are handled, you need to get some information about the kids to help you make your decisions about who is going to be on each team.  Different ways to gather this information may include:

•  Having the kids fill out some sort of questionnaire listing their skills, interests, etc. 
•   Speaking to teachers who work with the kids to learn more about them
• Hosting an informational night for kids and their parents where you interact with the kids and have them do some performances, Instant Challenges, etc. to see what they like/are good at
• Tryouts- some schools and programs may hold tryouts to decided which kids will be on which teams and in fact which kids may even be allowed to do DI (some schools have a limited number of spots based on how many team paks a school chooses to purchase).

Once you gather some information about the kids, there is no magic formula and it will take work to bring your team together, but there are some things to think about when forming your teams:

1. Age of the kids
2. Gender Balance
3. Skill sets/interests of the kids
4. Challenge Preference

1.       Age of the Kids

Destination Imagination is broken down into competitive and noncompetitive teams. There are four competitive levels within the DI program (the Rising Stars level being noncompetitive) designed to ensure that participants compete against their peers.  See below the chart from page 10 of the Rules of the Road which outlines the parameters for each of the competition levels:

Your team may have team members of all ages, but the Level at which you must compete will be determined by the participant in the highest grade-level or by the participant who is oldest. Combing participants from multiple competitive levels is not recommended and oftentimes combining kids of different ages even within the same competitive level can lead to problems.

For example, the elementary level is comprised of kids ranging from kindergarten through 5^th grade but would you want to put 2^nd graders and 5^th graders on the same team? 2^nd graders have a much different maturity level than 5^th graders and you may very well find that the 2^nd graders are frustrating the 5^th graders because the 5^th graders feel the 2^nd graders cannot contribute in the same way that the 5^th graders are. On the flip side the 2^nd graders might become frustrated because they feel that the 5^th graders are not letting them do anything. 

An age gap that is too great will most likely cause great frustration for you and your team members throughout the year and my advice is to form teams with kids as close together in age as you can.

2. Gender Balance

Having a balance of males and females on a team can be a very good thing.  Boys and Girls think about things differently and oftentimes have different skill sets to pull from. 

You may also decide that you want to have all girls or all boys on a team.  This can be very good or very bad depending on the kids. If you have a team full of elementary boys who are crazy energetic you may wish for a few girls on the team to balance things out. On the flip side if you have a middle school team of girls who are constantly fighting with one another you may wish you had a few boys in the mix to balance out the drama.  

Like any situation this greatly depends on the kids at hand and you may or may not have a choice in the matter. If you do have a choice however, you may want to avoid putting a solo boy or a solo girl on a team as they may feel left out of as if the rest of them are ganging up on them in team decisions etc. 

3. Skill Sets/Interest of the Kids

On every DI team no matter which challenge you are solving there are certain skills that will help a team in solving a DI team challenge.  This is not an all-encompassing list by any means nor should you think that you need ALL of these things on your team. Many of these skills can be taught and are things that the kids will gain through their experience with DI.  Some skills or traits to look for no matter what the  challenge include: 

• Teamwork- ability to work well with others
• Leadership/Project management skills
• Script writing
• Performance skills
• Ability to use tools/building to help with props and sets
• Interest in Costuming/someone who knows how to sew/make things
• Artistic skills (painting, drawing, etc).

If you know which challenge you are a Team Manager for you may additionally want to consider some high level skill sets/requirements for each of this years' Challenges  (in next week’s post I will talk about choosing a challenge and I will speak in more detail about each of the challenges):

Challenge A Technical:

• Building things such as robots, cars, etc.
• Knowledge/interest in manufacturing and assembling things

Challenge B: Scientific

• Knowledge/interested in science/physics (particularly light and solar energy)
• Theater experience particularly lighting design

Challenge C: Theatrical

• A theater/performance background
• Musical/Composition abilities
• Interest in other cultures/countries

Challenge D: Improvisational

• Strong performance skills
• Spontaneous kids who can make things up on the fly
• Interest in news/current events

Challenge E: Structural 

• Building knowledge/ interest in models, construction, bridges, etc. 
• Technical interest/knowledge

Project Outreach:

• Passion for service learning and community outreach
• Interest in Marketing and presenting

4.  Challenge Preference:

Something that should ALWAYS be considered is what do the kids want to do? What team do they want to be on? 

If you have a child who loves to build things and is incredibly shy and you put them on an Improv team rather than on a Structure team like they wanted you may not have a very happy child. 

Likewise if you have a child who wants to be on a team with his/her friends and you put them on a team with kids they do not know or do not work well with they may not enjoy their experience. 

This is not to say that kids should always put on teams with their friends and if someone is on a structure team one year they always HAVE to do structure, but make sure you are considering what the kids want to do when you make your decisions. 

The bottom line, if a child is excited about the challenge and the experience before them they will likely put a lot more effort into the experience than if they feel they were forced into something or if they are ‘stuck’ on a team they don’t want to be on. 

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I hope this information gives you some things to think about as you are forming teams. Like I said before, there is no right or wrong way to do this- these are simply some things to consider in forming a team.  

Remember that diversity on teams is a good thing and that teams do not always have to be made up of great friends. Remember that a team of all leaders is just as bad as a team without a clear leader and that Challenge A and E require a performance too so you may want to have someone on your team that wants to think about costumes, team choice elements and performances. :)

 If you have further questions on team formation or questions, comments or things you would like me to include on my blog in the future please email me at  ask.crissybuhr@gmail.com

Good luck with your team formations!

~Crissy

When Should I Start a Team?

So you have your Program Materials and Team Number, and now you are asking yourself... when should I get started? Are teams meeting now? The Challenges were released in September- have teams been working since then?  

For lack of a solid answer to this question, 'that depends...' seems to be the best answer I can give. There is no right answer to this question and you and your team ultimately need to decide what is best for YOU but I will offer some guidance and some things I feel are important to consider when making this decision.

Some teams have been meeting since September- when I was competing on a Secondary level team I know we did. Some teams will start in January- I know many other Secondary level teams that did just that. The truth is most teams start somewhere in between. Destination ImagiNation Team Challenges are designed to be solved in as little as 8 weeks although many and in fact most teams meet for longer than that.

 If your school has an established program this may already be decided for you. Often times schools have a selection process for how kids get involved in DI and which teams they will be placed on.  Other times it is up to the Team Manager and the team to drive this process.

If you are deciding when it is time to get started, start by taking some time to ask yourself these questions (in no particular order):

1. When is our Regional Tournament Scheduled for?
2. How old are the kids?
3. Are these students new to DI?
4. Has this team worked together before?
5. What Challenge has your team decided they want to solve?
6. What are the team goals as far as what they are hoping to get out of their DI experience?
7. What other activities are the team members involved with that may impact your ability to meet?

How you answer the questions above will help you determine what the correct timeline is for your team.

1. When is our Regional Tournament Scheduled for?

Your tournament date may very well have a factor in determining when you should start. In Wisconsin our first Regional tournament takes place the last week in February and the last Regional Tournament takes place the last weekend in March.  If your Tournament is earlier you should start earlier, and if your tournament is later you may decide to get started a little bit later since you have a bit more time.

2. How old are the kids?

Age of your team members can play a major factor in deciding when you should start your team. Very young children may have a difficult time working for 6 months on a Challenge.  The attention span of a 5 year old is much different than the attention span of a 15 year old.

On the other hand, younger children may need more time to solve the challenge at hand. More time for research, more time to meet etc. They may not be able to meet more than once a week after school for 1-2 hours so it may take them more time to solve their challenge than say a high school team who can meet for 4 hours at a time or until 10 pm at night.

There is no magic answer correlating timelines with ages, but age should definitely be considered in deciding when to start.

3.  Are these students new to DI?

Having  a 'seasoned' team of DIers and a team of newbies can definitely play into deciding when you want to start.  A team of students who are unfamiliar with the Destination ImagiNation program- reading a challenge, working as a team, generating ideas, going to tournament, etc. may require some more time up front just to 'figure out' what this whole 'DI thing' is and how to get started, whereas a team of seasoned DIers can pick up a Challenge and hit the ground running. 

As a general rule: if the kids are new to DI make sure to allow some time extra time for them to figure out what they have to do and how the entire process works.  

4.  Has this team worked together before?

Teamwork and teambuilding is a HUGE part of any DI team experience, and if your team has not worked together before- in its entirety or if you are adding new members to an existing team, you need to TAKE TIME TO TEAMBUILD! In order for your team to feel comfortable sharing ideas and working together, they need to learn about each other and learn HOW to work together.  If this stage is skipped or if you do not allow time for the 'team' mentality to form you will be feeling it the rest of the season.

If you team has worked together before however, the initial teambuilding stage can be expedited- but do not skip it! Teamwork and teambuilding is an important part of every DI experience and should constantly be nurtured and built upon.  Over the years as a team member, appraiser and trainer, I have experienced firsthand that the most successful teams are just that- a TEAM!

5.  What Challenge has your team decided they want to solve? 

Which Challenge your team has chosen to bring to tournament may help you decide on your timeline.  If your team will be solving Challenge A for instance and there is a major technical component involved, this may require your team to start a bit earlier. If your team has decided to participate in Challenge D the improvisational challenge your team may decided they do not need as much time and opt to start later in the season.  How much time your team feels they need to solve the challenge is up to you- but which Challenge your team chooses may be something to think about in determining when you want to start.

6. What are the team goals as far as what they are hoping to get out of their DI experience?

It is important to facilitate this conversation early on with your team to make sure that everyone is hoping to get the same thing out of their DI experience.  Is your goal as a team to have fun and make it to the regional tournament or does your team have the goal of making it to Global Finals?

The amount of time and energy a team wants to invest into the DI Progress and their solution is up to the team.  Teams that qualify to compete at the Global Finals competition generally put months and months of work into their solutions and all team members are extremely committed to perfecting their solutions.  This oftentimes involves starting earlier in the season, meeting more often, and working on things outside of team meetings.

If your team is new, or your team just wants to 'have fun and do the best we can', however you may decide to start later in the year and meet less frequently.

Your team goals are just that: YOUR Team goals. There is no right or wrong way to approach the DI experience; it will just be beneficial to all parties involved to determine your goals early in the season to make sure that everyone is on the same page regarding how much time and effort your team is willing to put into their solution and what you want to accomplish.

7. What other activities are the team members involved with that may impact your ability to meet?

Logistically, it may not be possible for your team to start in September even if you wanted to. Kids these days are involved in tons of activities both in school and out of school, so when determining when your team is going to start and when your team is going to meet it is important to know what you are up against. Perhaps you have team members involved in the Fall play, or kids that are playing a fall sport which may mean that starting in January may necessary.  Or perhaps you have a team member in a Spring play or on the track team and you know that starting in say February they will have practices that will conflict with your team meeting schedules so you may need to start meeting earlier so that you are finished with your solution before these conflicts arise.  How you work it out is up to you and your team- just know what you are working with so you can plan accordingly.

Taking time to plan your DI season and decide when you are going to start based on what is best for your team is an important step in starting the DI journey! Think about the questions above and lay out a plan that is right for your team to lay a solid foundation for what is sure to be a great and exciting year!

As always, check out the Wisconsin DI Website for up to date information regarding WIDI here: Wisconsin Destination ImagiNation

And please don't hesitate to email your questions to me at: ask.crissybuhr@gmail.com

Good Luck!

~Crissy

Getting started- How do I Start a Team?

A common question this time of the year is: How to I start a team? Many people are unsure of how they go about getting started so I have broken it down here to hopefully provide some insight and make the process a whole lot simpler!


Starting a Destination ImagiNation Team- How do I Start a Team?

Starting a team is EASY and requires only 3 simple steps to ensure your team can participate in a DI tournament and has all the information they need to be successful!

1. Purchase a Team Pak/Team Number from Destination ImagiNation



In order to participate in Destination ImagiNation you need to purchase what is called a Team Pak which gives you access to the full challenges and online resource area,  assigns you a Team Number, and allows you to solve one of the 7 Destination ImagiNation Team Challenges and bring it to tournament. One Team Pak/Team Number is needed for each team so make sure that your team has its own unique number assigned to it!

If you are through a school or organization with an established DI program, your School Coordinator is likely the one who will purchase your team Pak. Contact your school to find out if you have a Destination ImagiNation program already started and to get more information about getting your Team Number or help to purchase one for your team.


However, if you are not affiliated with a school or organization and you want to start a DI team (ANYONE can start a team!) you will need to purchase your Team Pak independently from the Shop DI Website: www.shopDI.org


Step By Step Instructions on how to purchase a Team Number are located on our Wisconsin DI Website here: Start a Team!

2. Register your Team with Wisconsin Destination ImagiNation

Once you have your team number and have paid your fees on the ShopDI website, we want to know who you are! We need to know which Region you are in, what age the kids are that are participating, and which of the Team Challenges you have decided to compete in so we can plan for tournaments! Registration occurs on the Wisconsin DI website: www.wisconsindi.org and will open soon! To Register on the WIDI site you will need to know:

• Your Region (click here for a Regional Map )
  
• Names of your Team Members and their ages/ grade levels
• Your Team Challenge
• Name of an Appraiser/Volunteer (if you do not have this, there is an option to provide a name later- please register anyways as SOON as you know your team members and Team Challenge)

Please note that you may have up to 7 team members on a team and once you have registered your team with Wisconsin DI you may not add or swap team members. Make sure your team is solidified when you register for Tournament.


Registration deadlines are in January, but the earlier you register, the easier it is for our Regional Directors to plan their tournaments! Check out the WIDI website for step by step information on what you need to register: http://www.wisconsindi.org/regTeam.cfm

Many tournaments require that you provide an appraiser and/or volunteer for the day of the tournament and now is a great time to start thinking about who that person(s) might be. An Appraiser must be at least 18 years old and available for the entire tournament day.  This person should not be a parent or team manager as this person will be unable to watch the teams performance as they will be placed in a challenge separate from the one the team is competing in. Past DI participants, teachers, or co-workers are excellent options, or your local community center may have folks who are looking for ways to volunteer. Volunteer roles are typically 2-4 hour shifts scheduled around a team's performance so parents are a great option here.

3. Keep in touch with your Regional Director!

Our Wisconsin Regional Directors are excellent resources dedicated to helping plan and prepare the local tournaments and are there to help ensure that you as Team Managers are well informed of information about trainings and workshops in your area and the tournament itself.  Many times your school coordinator will be the one to receive information and updates from the regional directors, so reach out to your coordinator for updates, or feel free to reach out to the Regional Directors directly if you are not receiving the .  Contact information for your local RD is located on the Wisconsin DI website here:  http://www.wisconsindi.org/contact.cfm

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Hopefully this helps provide some insight into how to Start a Team with Destination ImagiNation! Next week's topic will provide some insight into the question: When should I start?

Remember to check out the Wisconsin Destination ImagiNation page for lots of information: www.wisconsindi.org and please email me your questions at: ask.crissybuhr@gmail.com. I will be answering new questions on this blog weekly! :)

Good Luck and I encourage you all to START A TEAM! today! :)


~Crissy