On February 12, a total of ninety-six Dallas Independent School District schools with 164 teams competed in the regional Destination Imagination competition at Skyline High School.
Several of those neighborhood schools will be advancing to the state competition, which will take place in March. Included in the eighteen DISD teams are students from Lakewood Elementary, Mata Montessori, and Truett Elementary, the Lakewood Advocate reports.
According to Dallas ISD, the Destination Imagination program “is a fun, hands-on system of learning that fosters students’ creativity, courage, and curiosity through open-ended academic challenges in the fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), fine arts, and service-learning.”
Angelina Nuno, the Student Activities Project Manager for Dallas ISD, said the program teaches students creative ways to solve problems and work as a team.
“Destination Imagination is one of Dallas ISD Student Activities’ most popular and fun programs for students in grades K-12,” Nuno said. “Students collaborate, create, and communicate to find unique solutions to one of seven different challenges utilizing valuable skills learned through the participation in the program.”
During the regional competition, nearly 1,100 students showcased their creative problem-solving skills in a range of team-based challenges, The Hub Dallas Reports.
“Dallas ISD students showed up to compete in a sea of vibrant homemade costumes and props,” DISD said in a statement. “Colorful characters collided with colossal set pieces made of multi-colored boxes, duct tape, and flowy fabric. Everything from tin foil turtle shells and wacky hats to costumes that lit up like Christmas trees was on display at the competition.”
The program is made possible through the nonprofit organization Texas Destination Imagination. According to the organization’s website, they reach nearly twenty-thousand Texas students every year. Destination Imagination expands across the entire country, reaching over 100,000 students.
Destination Imagination can be found in 30 other countries, introducing students to educationally based competitions. Student teams compete in challenges that test them on working together, thinking on their feet, and finding original solutions to open-ended problems.
The State Competition will take place from March 25-26, and it will be held at the University of Texas in Arlington. An award ceremony will be held after the competition at Choctaw Stadium.
The complete list of neighborhood schools that will be advancing to the state competition, as well as their teams and challenges, are:
Truett Elementary
Team name: DI Creator Villains
Challenge: Daring Escape
Lakewood Elementary
Team name: Beans and Lice
Challenge: Up Close
Casa View Elementary
Team name: Beagles
Challenge: Tricky Tales
Reinhardt Elementary
Team name: RAMS
Challenge: Tricky Tales
Woodrow Wilson (with Booker T. Washington HSPVA and Townview SEM)
Team name: TROTIC
Challenge: Festival Frenzy
Mata Montessori
Team name: Mata Montessorians
Challenge: Roll With It
“On behalf of Texas DI, I want to thank everyone for participating in this worthy process that recognizes the best in creativity and academic problem-solving,” Texas DI State Director Emily Duke said in a Facebook post. “We are tremendously excited to see the best that Texas has to offer and host a TOURNAMENT of CHAMPIONS!!”
The new Destination Imagination season will start on September 1, 2022.
