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.