This weekend my son's destination imagination team is
competing in the state finals. If they win they go to global finals in
May. Sam's team has been to Global finals three times. Last year his team finished third out of 120
teams at Global.
I am writing this blog entry in part to brag about my son,
but another part to describe the very interesting educational aspects of
competing in DI.
Sam has been working with a team since October on developing
their challenge. Below is a description of the challenge:
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.
The performance with all of the aspects being covered and
all of the technical demonstrations have to be done in an eight minute time
span. Watching Sam’s team work together
to build some very amazing theater set pieces, write a funny script and design
their optical illusion piece was pretty amazing. They really came together as a team; each
member utilizing their strengths. That
is part of the DI vision, to recognize and utilize different skills with in a
team.
It is not all fun and
games. There are times that Sam really
doesn’t want to go to practice, but in the end he always values and is proud of
the team’s accomplishments.
I wonder how school could be more like a DI challenge. I
recall trying to do similar sorts of projects in my classroom; trying to allow
students to utilize their strengths to accomplish a goal. It was important to
build an environment that valued diversity. I liked how students would look to certain
students for figuring out some mathematical problem, or another student to
create an artistic design. When projects
were cooking it was a joy to be a part of.
A DI challenge is exactly that. The team is very interested
in solving the challenge and they learn and do the things necessary to
accomplish that goal.
Sam has learned how to write plays, use power tools, build
simple machines, create electrical circuits, and perform in front of an
audience. The language aspects of team communications, of writing scripts, and
public speaking are very effective teaching and learning. The students also have to read and interpret
the rules for their challenge. IT is important to gain a strong understanding
of the challenge in order to get the most points possible. The team displays a strong ability of reading
analysis when reviewing the rules. The measuring used to build set pieces and the
conversions done in building electric engines are practical application of math.
If the team is able to make it to global finals it is a very social learning
environment. it is amazing to see the social interactions with kids from all
over the world.
That covers a lot of our traditional curricular areas. What
if more of our schooling was like DI?
Would students be more engaged? Would students learn practical problem
solving skills? Would students learn to interpret and use what they learn? Would
students learn more about themselves and the community in which they are
learning?
This sort of environment would be like that of the
unschooling movement. The activities of the unschoolers are reading, playing,
singing, dancing, growing things, writing. They do these activities because
they interest them and they bring them joy or because they help to accomplish their
dreams. They do the things that have meaning in there lives and contained
within those activities is real learning.
I like the unschooling idea.
