Students in 3rd through 12th grade select from central challenges in one of six categories: Technical, Scientific, Engineering, Service Learning, Fine Arts, or Improv. Students in 1st and 2nd grade all solve the same challenge in Destination Imagination’s noncompetitive Rising Stars division. Although each Team Challenge has a specific educational focus, they each also incorporate elements to make them truly multi-disciplinary and cross-curricular (i.e., the Fine Arts Challenge will have a technical element and the Engineering Challenge will have an artistic or storytelling component.)

Each team works together throughout the season, typically meeting weekly from late fall through early spring, with more or longer meetings as the tournament approaches. To solve a challenge, teams might research facts on animal habitats, gravitation on a different planet, or the life of a historical figure. They might build and decorate scenery, sew costumes, write and perform music, construct bridges or small vehicles, or any combination of these things and more.

While the challenges have scoring rubrics and get appraised at competitions in the spring, the primary goal of the season is creativity, collaboration, resilience, discovery, building confidence, and having fun. Over the course of the season, kids learn about time management, resource management, and the design process while teaching themselves things they never knew they could learn how to do.

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The hallmark of Destination Imagination is that students cannot have any outside help with their challenge solution. All ideas and work towards the final creation (which is traditionally an 8-minute theatrical presentation or performance) must come from the students on the team and only the students on the team.

Team Managers, parents, teachers or others not on the team are not allowed to give ideas, offer suggestions, or give feedback in any way that adds to the final solution. Outside adult supervision is required to maintain safe environments, teach the team skills they can use (once the team identifies what is needed), procure materials and supplies, and help younger teams with organization/project management (older students are on their own!)

This means everything about the project from concept to design to execution is entirely student-driven: parents and coaches can’t measure, cut or nail together wood for the team, sew costumes, fix something that falls apart, or most importantly tell the kids what is a good or a bad idea — they determine that themselves!

Students Work Together To…

• Choose the Challenge

• Generate Ideas

• Research

• Prototype

• Design & Build

• Make Decisions

• Manage a Budget

• Solve Conflicts

• Manage their Project Timeline

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• The Central Challenge is what teams spend the season on. For competing teams (Grades 3 - 12), this is the challenge that teams pick out of the six STEAM choices at the beginning of the season, and non-competing teams (Grades 1 and 2) work on the the Early Learning challenge.

• Teams have a budget of $150 total for the entire challenge solution. A high value is placed on reusing and upcycling everyday household items!

• Teams present their solutions in the form of a short skit (7-8 minutes, depending on the challenge including setup time). For teams in that compete, this makes up the majority of their score.

• Teams are scored on technical design elements and execution — so they can get points for risk-taking and creativity as well as the effectiveness of their design.

• Teams must integrate two Team Choice Elements into their Central Challenge solution. Team Choice Elements are additional elements not required by the Central Challenge that teams choose to be scored. Think a costume, a prop, a song, a set piece, or anything else the kids think of.

• While not required, it is a tradition for teams to say “TIME!” at the end of their performance. This lets the appraisers and the audience know they have finished.

• The Instant Challenge is a never-before-seen task or performance that accounts for 25% of tournament score - students use their communication and teamwork skills to come up with a creative answer quickly (usually under 10 minutes)! Teams practice these challenges throughout the season.In Bedford, we also hold an event in January called the IC Medley, in which teams get to go, solve many different Instant Challenges.

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Click here to see a video introducing this year's challenges and read more about them!

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Team Size

• Teams are formed in groups of two to seven students.

• Destination Imagination limits teams to a maximum of seven students.

Team Composition

• For competition and performance purposes, teams are organized by level– Rising Stars (Grade 2 and below), Elementary (Grades 3-5), Middle (Grades 6-8), and Secondary (Grades 9-12).

• Teams are typically formed with students in the same grade level. Teams ARE permitted to have students of mixed ages but they must compete at the level of the OLDEST team member.

• Many teams choose to stay together for multiple years, providing a unique continuity to the experience of teamwork and creativity. However, students are not locked in to a team that isn’t working for them if they would prefer a new placement and an alternative team is available.

• Returning teams that have been together more than two years may take on or decline new teammates at the consensus of the team manager and team members.

Team Placement

• New teams are often formed from groups of friends registering together, so tell your friends about Destination Imagination!

• Every Destination Imagination team needs one or two parent volunteers to serve as Team Managers. Volunteering to help lead the team is the best way to increase your chances of having a successful team placement. Managing a team might feel daunting, but we will give you all the help and support we possibly can and remember—the idea is for the kids to do everything, not you!!

• Specific team placement requests with friends can only be honored if the parent is willing to serve as Team Manager. Students whose parents cannot volunteer in this capacity may request placement with ONE friend and we will do our best if we are able.

• If we do not have enough managers to support all students, priority will be given to students returning to existing teams and students with parents willing to volunteer.

• Occasionally, we are unable to form enough teams due to either a lack of students or a lack of managers (although we hate when this happens). Your registration fee is only collected once a student is successfully placed on a team.

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DIHQ — DIHQ refers to Destination Imagination’s Global Headquarters. These are the people who oversee Destination Imagination as a whole across the world. They write the rules and the challenges from all Destination Imagination teams. They are also the people who organize Global Finals (held each May in Kansas City, MO); attended by the highest ranking team from each US state or country.

MADI — MADI (or Massachusetts Destination Imagination) is the state DI affiliate for Massachusetts. They organize all of the regional tournaments, as well as the state tournament.

I did Odyssey of the Mind as a kid. Destination Imagination sounds similar?

Yep! Destination Imagination was founded in 1999 as a nonprofit offshoot of Odyssey of the Mind (which was/is a for-profit entity). Destination Imagination is now the larger of the two organizations, but if you are familiar with Odyssey of the Mind, Destination Imagination is far more similar than different.

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