We offer an educational experience in which teams of students solve challenges and then present their solutions at tournaments, where they are rewarded for creativity and innovation. Through solving a challenge, a team will learn the creative process, but the benefits do not stop there. Our challenges ignite students’ passions in the arts, as well as science, technology, engineering, and math.
Destination Imagination was created to help students gain the skills needed for success in school and their future careers. Most of today’s students will be employed in jobs that have yet to be invented. We believe the best way to guarantee their success is to teach them the social-emotional skills that will help them in any endeavor—confidence and creativity; risk-taking and perseverance; and project management and teamwork. These are the skills that will allow today’s students to forge their own paths through the 21st century and beyond.
We rely on a strong network of licensed organizations—called Affiliates—around the world to bring DI to life. Each Affiliate provides local support to Team Managers and provides showcase opportunities for students to continue developing their lifelong learning skills.
So what does it look like? Each DI team is made up of 2-7 students and mentored by an adult Team Manager who is often a teacher in their school or a parent to one of the students. The team works together for 2-4 months to solve one of our Challenges.
Each Challenge has a different educational focus—Technical, Scientific, Engineering, Fine Arts, Improv, or Service Learning. Choosing the Challenge that is most appealing for a team is part of the DI creative problem-solving journey. The Team Manager takes the students through the creative process helping them to identify the different creative problem-solving tools in their toolkit. They also practice using project management tools as they plan and create their solution.
Team Managers have resources to help them, too. The Roadmap is our guide to help them navigate the process with meeting plans and activities for their Team. We also provide robust online training courses that cover many aspects of being a Team Manager.
The amazing part of DI is the celebration for the process of learning that each student embarks on. For each Challenge, the final 8-minute solution is a performance that showcases the combined talents of everyone on the team and reminds the audience that visual art, performance, and STEM are a noteworthy combination.
