In our first year at Concordia, which has been a trial year, parents have formed and funded two Concordia Elementary School teams. The teams meet once a week to work on the Challenges chosen by the teams and to do all sorts of other fun and creative activities. The teams have been working hard since October to solve their chosen challenges and to develop creative problem solving skills and teamwork skills. 

 

Our younger team, the “Surfing Coconuts,” is a Rising Stars level, which is designed for children up through second grade. Our team is nine children (the maximum for the Rising Star level), including one kindergartener, two first-graders and six second-graders. These children have been working hard to prepare a structure made only out of tape and newspaper that can hold weight, and to prepare an original play to perform during the Regional Tournament when they present their structure.

 

Our older team, the “Sour Lemons Straight from Detention,” is a fourth grade team with seven members (the maximum for the elementary level). They have been working hard building a “machine” that will carry balls over a six-foot high, two-feet thick, and ten-feet high wall to one square foot targets located as far as fifteen feet over the wall. As if that is not challenging enough, the machine operators also cannot see the targets, so they are developing a system to communicate the location of the targets to the machine operators. The kids are also having plenty of fun preparing an original play discussing risk and reward, which they will perform at the Regional Tournament while they make attempts to deliver balls over the wall into their targets. 

 

If any parent is interested in forming a DI team next year, all you need to do is find a team, and find a parent or parents willing to serve as Team Managers. Team Managers are strictly facilitators. They do not assist the kids in coming up with a solution. Rather, they do guided activities with the children to help them develop the skills they will need to tap into their creativity and to work together well as a team to tackle open-ended and complex problems. For more information, take a look at www.idodi.org. Feel free to email Monica Burick at burickfamily@gmail.com if you’d like any other information. Destination Imagination for the 2010-2011 year will kick off in the fall of 2010, and funs for about four months.