2024 will mark Dover-Sherborn’s 14th year participating in Destination Imagination (DI). The goal of DI is to transform education one challenge at a time and to inspire and equip youth to imagine and innovate through the creative process today so they will become the creative and collaborative leaders of tomorrow. Students work together in teams to solve open-ended STEAM challenges designed to teach the creative process. Kids learn vital life and career skills through the DI process - creative thinking, critical thinking, public speaking and collaborative problem solving - that help them feel empowered to change the world.
Teams are typically composed of 2-7 kids who are mostly led by a parent to facilitate meetings and keep them on track. One magical part of DI is their interference policy. Basically, kids have to imagine and create how they will approach their challenge and it’s pretty incredible to see what they come up with if we step back. It can be very difficult at times for the adults to step back! Their task is to find a solution to their chosen Central Challenge (published annually by Destination Imagination) in the area of Technical, Engineering, Scientific, Fine Arts, Improvisational, Service Learning and Early (pre K-2nd grade). It’s incredible to watch how they morph through their challenge and working tirelessly over a five month period. They also work on Instant Challenges throughout the season which account for 25% of their final tournament score. These are challenges (task, improv or both) where they are given directions, may have two minutes to decide how they will handle it and four minutes to act it out. It’s a wonderful way for them to learn to be quick on their feet as a team to make decisions and find solutions but also making sure everything runs smoothly and conflict free. The kids grow and develop a lot during these exercises in addition to their main Central Challenge.
Pine Hill Elementary in Sherborn and Dover-Sherborn High School represented the Dover-Sherborn district with seven teams (forty-one students) who participated in the MADI Regional tournament in Beverly, MA on March 2nd and March 10th. These teams, listed below, worked tirelessly from November-March to take all of the necessary steps to learn and prepare for the tournament while having a lot of fun and making great memories in the process.
Galaxy Lightning Muffins (second graders, Pinball Heroes/ Technical Challenge)
Leo Chen, Jyotsana Iyer, Adeline Lowder, Elliott Sheahan and Natalie Silvia.
***Destiny (third graders, Going the Distance/ Engineering Challenge) - 2nd Place tied Winner Heading to Globals!
Annabeth VanLangen, Arianna Bassalee, Dhruva Mantena, Eliza Andrus, Neer Chourasia, Siwen Chen and Victor Zhu.
***BRAIN-E (fifth graders, Blast from the Past/ Scientific Challenge) - 1st Place Winner Heading to Globals!
Emma Hagan, Eleni Bassalee, Sophia Bassalee, Ben Schneider, Greyson Schaefers, Bowen Zhu and Kaitlyn Von Seggern.
***Cheese (fifth graders, Pinball Heroes/ Technical Challenge) - 1st Place Winner Heading to Globals!
Teddy Tapply, Andrew Blue, Arjun Iyer, Finn Hartigan, James Ho and Austin Eppich.
*Super Studs (fifth graders, In Motion/ Fine Arts) - 3rd Place Winner!
Vihaan Kadiyala, Max Goldwyn, Max Albers, Liam Corey and Eddie Berk.
*DIonized Water (10th graders, Pinball Heroes/ Technical Challenge - 2nd Place Winner!
Camille Boudreau, Ellie Hwang, Ben Juo, Sadie Lymneos-Henry, Raina Patel, and Hazel Violin.
*The Blue Mustaches (twelfth graders, So extra/ Improvisational) - 2nd Place Winner!
Dylan Melanovsky, Jamie Davis, Katie Murray, Kate Hammerness and Caroline Guillette.
Six teams (see * next to the team) performed well enough to secure an invitation to the Global competition in their respective challenge categories competing against their respective grade levels - elementary, middle school & high-school. Typically, the invitation is extended to 1st & 2nd place winners. Three Dover-Sherborn teams (see ***) have chosen to accept their invitation and travel to compete in the world renowned DI Globals in Kansas City, MO this May. Dover-Sherborn will be proudly represented by Team Destiny, Team Brain-E and Team Cheese. Ukraine, Turkey, Indonesia and many other countries/ states to name a few competed last year so it’s quite an exhilarating experience!
The three Dover-Sherborn teams who will now participate in the Global Competition in Kansas City, MO this May would greatly appreciate any support from our community as we proudly represent Dover-Sherborn district at the Global competition in Kansas City, MO this May. Each team has to pay a registration fee of $5,500, plane fare, four night stay, food and more which ads up to over $60k in expenses for our three teams. We welcome your readers to support the Three Dover-Sherborn teams who will be attending globals by sending their contribution to Venmo: @Brianrblue, email brianrblue@gmail.com with any questions For more information about DI, visit www.destinationimagination.org or www.madikids.org.
