🎪 2025 Destination Imagination Regionals
Communication, Confidence, Teamwork, and Creativity. That my team and I put to use during the DI Regional Tournament. Once again, the entirety of PLP 8, 9, and 10 has been sorted into teams to compete against each other. We were sorted into four different categories; Science, Technical, Engineering, and Fine Arts. This year, I was sorted into the Engineering category called the ‘High Wire Act’. The challenge that was give to us, was to create a machine that can transport up to 10 weights across a wire on it’s own. We also had to create a short performance based on contemporary circus. To get a better understanding of what DI really is, I recommend visiting this link. https://www.destinationimagination.org
My team, the Greatest Engineers (like the Greatest Showman), consisted of 5 people. This year I was part of the 3 grade 10s in our group, so we were expected to take on some leadership. We had to work together to meet all of the requirements of our challenge. And trust me when I tell you, there were a LOT of requirements. Not only were there many specific requirements set for both the machine and the weights, but there was also many requirements we had to meet with our performance. At first, our group really struggled to come up with solutions for this challenge. But everything started to come together once we had our script written out (thanks to our grade 9s). And our hard work and efforts paid off, because our team placed first in our category! During our instant challenges, I think we did really well in using our key strengths and demonstrating our team dynamic. I can’t go into detail, since that would get our team disqualified, but all I will say is that our teamwork and efforts really shone through during our instant challenge.
Somethings that our team struggled with is timing/scheduling. On the days leading up to the tournament, we all thought that it would be helpful to meet up before and after school to rehearse and improve our performance. We were unable to do so since different people were unavailable at different times. Our communication was amazing throughout all this which I am very proud of us for. We also had a bit of an awkward pause at the end of our performance during the tournament which was a timing issue between the performance and the machine. I think that if my team and I could work on this aspect, we would be unstoppable in the provincial tournament.
This year, I was very happy with the dynamic that our team had. We were able to work off of each other ideas, we had clear communication for who was assigned which role, and constantly checking in on each other. I contributed my efforts by creating our props (one of our team choice elements) as well as our backdrops. I could not be more happy with the group that I got, because everyone was happy to contribute in anyway they could. Our grade 9s did an amazing job putting together our costumes and creating our storyline, and my 2 grade 10 members did so well creating our machine.
Through this process, I learned the importance of communication. Last year, the team I was in struggled with communication, which caused many obstacles for us. This year I am happy to say that my team did not have any struggles communicating with each other. We constantly used our group chats, updated each other In our progress, and let our team members know whenever we needed help with something.
Overall, I think that this was a great learning experience for my team and I. I think that this round of DI went a lot better than last year’s and it has taught me many real world skills that I will most definitely be using even after school ends. I can’t wait to see how we improve our weaknesses for the provincial tournament in April!
Esther • March 5, 2025