DI is a worldwide non-profit organization whose purpose is to inspire and equip students to become the next generation of innovators and leaders. Students work in teams to solve open-ended challenges that foster their creativity, courage and curiosity. In working to solve our DI challenges, teams learn 21st century skills (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, citizenship and courage), step outside of their comfort zones to pursue ideas and make presentations, and build on their unique strengths. destinationimagination.org
If you remember last year’s DI was virtual. This year however, DI was partially back to normal with the tournament being held in person with a limited audience and a virtual awards ceremony.
This year I got to have the pleasure of working with Faith, Sabrina, Zach and Cale on our DI team “Synical Scientists” for the Scientific Challenge. I think that we were able to use everyone’s talents to create a truly awesome solution.
We used Basecamp to organize and communicate. One of my roles was to keep our Basecamp clean and organized:
The scientific challenge had several aspects, the main ones being: Story, Microworld Scenery, Mysterious Object, Visual Effect and Team Choice Element.
Here’s some information about our solution for each of the components (click to expand):
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TEAM CHOICE ELEMENTS
↓ Team Choice Element 1
What is you Team Choice Element 1?
Music
Write a brief description of your Team Choice Element:
Our team created a short piece of original music. It was created using the computer program “LogicPro X.” The instruments used were a British Hard Rock Synth, a Live Air Band Drum set and a string ensemble. To find the chord progression we used the popular method of I IV VI which is the same method used in popular songs like “Runaway” by Kanye West.
↓ Team Choice Element 2
What is your Team Choice Element 2?
Poem
Write a brief description of your Team Choice Element:
Our team worked together to write a series of 3 Haiku poems for the character ‘Uncle Frank’ to recite about himself and how great he is:
Hi, I'm Uncle Frank,
I’m always playing a prank,
I'm built like a tank.
You can't beat my strengths,
I can swim 100 lengths,
I am amazing.
I am the greatest,
I am truly the bravest,
Better than the rest
It has a rhyme scheme that portrays his big headed personality and demonstrates our team’s poetry skills which were developed in a previous project our class did.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SCORED ELEMENTS
↓ Story
1. Briefly describe your story about at least one character who encounters a Mysterious Object while in at least one Microworld.
The peace of the lab is disturbed when Uncle Frank, a cousin of an scientist that works them name Fredrick. Uncle Frank comes in and messes with Doctor H’s shrink ray while playing loud music. When Uncle Frank presses a button on the shrink ray out of curiosity, it causes all the characters in the room to be transported into the Sulfolobus acidocaldarius archaebacteria bacteria cell Doctor E was working on. All scientists travel around the cell and while Uncle Frank is reciting a poem, Uncle Frank accidentally trips on the mysterious object which the group quickly dismiss the mysterious object as useless. The group soon looses faith in ever getting out of the cell, however, Uncle Frank notices the mysterious object again and the group decides to open it, causing all of the characters to be transported back into the lab.
↓ Mysterious Object
2. What is your Mysterious Object? Briefly describe the Mysterious Object’s identity and/or purpose that is discovered by at least one character in your story.
Our mysterious object was artistically painted by one of our team members. The inside of the mysterious object contains cellular protein made out of cardboard that also glows in the dark or glows with the help of our UV flashlight. This glowing cellular protein, when touched, sends everyone back to the lab which all the characters find out near the end of the presentation.
↓ Microworld
3. Identify your Microworld(s). What research about the Microworld(s) and/or the science of microscopy has your team integrated into the Presentation?
The characters accidentally enter a Sulfolobus acidocaldarius archaebacteria bacteria cel, our chosen microwold. Our team used glow-in-the-dark paint to create cellular protein tagged with florescence for Florescence Microscopy on our set pieces. The protein has been tagged with fluorescence for Doctor E’s microscopy research, the cell that the protein is in is the cell which the character get shrunk into by the Compressive Condenser (aka shrink ray). Inside the cell can be found the cellular structure (Nucleoid: circular DNA) of the cell along with ribosomes which create protein within cells and protein tagged with fluoresce.
4. Identify and briefly describe your Microworld Scenery and how it depicts your team’s Microworld(s) in a three-dimensional way
The Sulfolobus acidocaldarius archaebacteria bacteria cell, our chosen microworld, is represented in a three-dimensional way by using a large cardboard backdrop, cardboard cellular structure and balloons which the characters walk through creating a 3D effect. The cardboard backdrop is painted green with little circles representing the fluorescence tagged protein. The cellular structure (Nucleoid: circular DNA), is presented by a 3D cardboard bush-like shape painted green with darker green representing the twisting cellular structure. The balloons represent the ribosomes, which generate protein inside a cell. All these objects when placed out across the presentation area create a 3D scene for the characters to walk amongst.
5. What Microscopy Imaging Technique style from Table 1 did your team use? How is it used to enhance your Microworld Scenery?
Our team used Fluorescence Microscopy. We used glow-in-the-dark paint to mimic the glowing fluorescence used to tag protein in cells. When the scientists and Uncle Frank accidentally enter the Sulfolobus acidocaldarius archaebacteria bacteria cell that Doctor E had been working on, they stumble across the fluorescence tagged protein. The fluoresce tagged protein can be found in the form of circles on the microworld backdrop and also in the mysterious object.
↓ Visual Effect
6. Briefly describe your Visual Effect. What Technical Methods did you use to visually reveal, enhance, and/or animate the Mysterious Object in the Microworld(s)?
Our team used hydraulics to enhance our mysterious object. Two sets of hydraulics push up a cardboard platform which has painted glow-in-the-dark paint on them to replicate the cellular protein found in bacteria cells. As the glowing insides of the mysterious object are pushed up, it also slowly opens the flaps of the mysterious object. This created a mysterious effect that leaves the audience in suspense as the flaps slowly open to reveal the glowing cellular protein within.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Reflect on how your team experienced each stage of the creative process as you solved the Team Challenge.
↓ Recognize
1. RECOGNIZE: What process did your team go through in order to understand all the issues or points of the Challenge?
Our group had group read throughs and discussions about the challenge. We asked multiple clarifying questions and had meetings outside of scheduled time slots to do more work on our solution. Our team also had used deliverable data sheets for each aspect of the challenge which we used to increase our understanding of the many aspects of the challenge.
↓ Imagine
2. IMAGINE: How did your team use your imagination to explore new ideas about possible solutions to the Challenge?
Our team used idea generation charts to brainstorm ideas for our challenge solution. We created prototypes for just about every aspect of our solution before fully committing and building a final product.
↓ Collaborate and Initiate
3. COLLABORATE AND INITIATE: How did your team work in a collaborative way? How did your team take risks and go beyond the minimum as you committed to a solution?
Our team communicated constructively with each other, voicing concerns, areas for improvement and made sure that our critique was Kind, Helpful and Specific. We worked hard both inside and outside of our team meetings and had frequent meetings outside of scheduled time slots. We kept in touch and communicated via text when apart. When unable to meet in person our group met virtually on Zoom to continue working towards our final solution.
↓ Assess
4. ASSESS: How did your team assess your solution as it was being created?
Our team made sure to continually critique our work throughout the duration of our meetings and improve as necessary. We used made sure to be Kind, Helpful and Specific when critiquing our work. We created several prototypes to test and improve our solution in almost all aspects. Once we created our final solution we continued to test, critique and improve our solution.
↓ Evaluate and Celebrate
5. EVALUATE AND CELEBRATE: Reflect on your experience. What did your team learn?
How did your team celebrate your journey and accomplishments?
Our team always celebrates after each achievement giving high fives and praise to each other. We continue to support and congratulate each other’s skills and improvements over the course of our meetings. We always cheer each other on and reflected on our performance after each run through or practice instant challenge.
I found the planning process of DI was very challenging. We did several activities such as idea generation charts to brainstorm and assigned roles for each part of the solution.
The part of DI I enjoyed was the making of the physical set pieces and props. I spent a lot of time enhancing the functionality and durability of our Mysterious Object.
We used spray paint on a large piece of cardboard for a backdrop with balloons and painted cardboard cellular structure for our set/microworld scenery.
The two most helpful things I think I contributed to the team was:
the idea to use glow-in-the-dark paint to represent protein tagged with fluorescence for the microscopy imaging technique Fluorescence Microscopy:
I thought up and built the compressive condenser (aka the Shrink Ray) out of my slightly broken desk lamp, some cardboard and duck tap:
I was originally going the play the character Uncle Frank so we rehearsed a lot with me playing that role.
I was not able to go the tournament however because of a National Lifeguard course which was on the same day as the tournament. Thankfully Sabrina was able to take over the role of Uncle Frank. Quite frankly, I think she did a better job at the role than I did anyway!
I think that the team did a great job without me and I’m very proud of all the work we did.
Here’s some ‘Sticky Notes’ from the DI Appraisers on our presentation:
🎉 WE PLACED 3rd!!🥉
I’m very proud that our hard work paid off, and we were able to place. Congratulations to all the other teams of all the challenges as well!
I learned some very valuable teamwork, critical thinking and problem solving skills from DI.
If you didn’t watch the video of our presentation at the start of this post, make sure to do so now!
I was originally going the play the character Uncle Frank so we rehearsed a lot with me playing that role.
