Destination ImagiNation Team, ‘Building it Up with Style’, from Edward Schreyer School who qualified for Globals last year and finished 15th in the world.
Destination ImagiNation
Unusual program making impact on local youth
By Lory Mitton
Sunrise School Division is spreading the word about a unique educational program that is preparing young people today for the unknown challenges they will face in the future.
Entitled Destination ImagiNation, the program is a collaborative endeavour involving student teams of two to seven participants in creative problem solving.
After a team from Edward Schreyer School (ESS) in Beausejour finished 15th in the global competition last year, Sunrise is seeking to get more schools involved.
The division hosted an information session on Feb. 13 to encourage more schools to participate.
Formerly the vice principal at ESS, Lonnie Liske serves as Affiliate Provincial Director for the program. He is now principal at Lac du Bonnet Senior School.
“They were the talk of the tournament,” Liske said, explaining that the Beausejour students turned heads with their effort at the Global competition.
Although in their first year of the program, the students matched the effort of more experienced teams that have been involved with Destination ImagiNation for close to a decade.
“Kids today need to be prepared for jobs that don’t even exist yet,” said Liske.
He explains that Destination ImagiNation promotes four ‘C’s: Creativity, Communication, Collaboration and Critical thinking.
Students can choose from a series of challenges ranging from technical engineering problems to artistic and narrative storytelling. Each type and level of challenge has to be solved using limited resources and according to preset criteria.
The teams of students work on two different tasks, the Central Challenge and the Instant Challenge.
In the Central Challenge, the kids have eight to 12 weeks to work on and complete their project.
Students are required to complete their task without the direct help of parents or staff. They may, however, ask to learn a skill that will be utilized in the solution.
“We have Grade 7 students learning to weld,” Liske said. “When they ask to learn a set of skills, they must transfer those skills into the solution.”
During a tournament, students also are given an Instant Challenge, which pushes them to think on their feet. Before the competitions, students practice different Instant Challenges to learn the skills they need to be prepared.
“It’s amazing what kids come up with if you give them a chance.”
This year, Lac du Bonnet Senior School has three teams, which Liske believes will compete at a high level.
“Some of these kids have spent more time after school than I have,” he said, noting that one of the greatest positives of the program is that the students are actively engaged and enjoy being so.
The first tournament will take place in Powerview on Mar. 10. Provincials begin in Beausejour in mid-April.
Destination ImagiNation operates in Canada, the U.S. and more than 30 other countries worldwide.
In 2010/2011, three Manitoba School Divisions became involved in Destination ImagiNation and fielded 17 teams. Four of these teams qualified and attended the Destination ImagiNation Global Finals in Knoxville, TN with over 17,000 other Destination ImagiNation participants from over 20 countries.
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