Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

District to host educational tournament, Destination ImagiNation

Cabe Middle School will host the Southern Region tournament for an educational program called Destination ImagiNation on March 8. The program is in its sixth year. There are no teams participating from the Gurdon School District this year.

In the past, Gurdon has had two to three teams participate in the challenges.

Destination ImagiNation is a program that builds participants creativity, problem solving and teamwork in enjoyable and meaningful ways, according the Destination ImagiNation, Inc. Web site. The program is community based and school friendly.

The teams range from primary groups of young students all the way through college-aged students.Teams of two to seven students work together to apply their creativity, critical thinking and talent to solve what is called a Team Challenge.

There are five competitive challenges for teams:

 Technical/Mechanical

 Theater arts/Science,

 Theater arts/Fine arts,

 Theater arts/Improvisation

 Structural and Architectural design.

After choosing one of the areas of challenge, the team has a Central Challenge, a Side Trip and an Instant Challenge to complete and solve their problem.

To give an original spin on the project, each team member must come up with two Side Trips to incorporate in the final presentation. They can add anything they feel they are good at, such as writing music, designing costumes, designing stage props, building, special effects or anything they invent themselves.

On the day of the tournament, each member has an Instant Challenge, in which members go into a room by themselves, are presented with a challenge they have to solve within three to five minutes to prepare and two to three minutes to present to the tournament appraisers. Instant Challenges are geared toward having the participants think on their feet.

The team normally has eight to 12 weeks to complete their assigned challenge and, at the DI tournament, present their methodology and final solution.

If anyone is interested in seeing kids using their creativity and thinking on their feet they need to come see this tournament, said Brownie Mitchell, Arkansas Affiliate Director.

The Southern Region tournament begins at 8:30 a.m., and the awards ceremony will kick off at 3 p.m.