For the past three months, we have been working on Destination Imagination. It was the longest, most challenging and arguably most significant project. But how did DI prove so affecting as to change us entirely? In this blog post, I will be talking about our DI learning journey.
Why?
Why did we have this project in the first place?
Before we can do anything, we have to begin with the end state in mind. In other words, we have to recognize what our goals and purposes are first. According to Ms. Willemse, three main benefits are doing DI are:
- To inspire our creativity
- To develop a problem-solving mentality
- To learn how to collaborate with others
Although we never launched a rocket as Elon Musk did, DI allowed us to experience real-world and experiment or ideas at a low cost. Unfortunately, I was not in PLP throughout grade 8 or 9, which means I only have this year to participate. Therefore, I was interested in this project.
How?
How did we plan to accomplish the goal & purpose?
With the purpose in mind, we focused on the process to accomplish our goal. My team, Amy Sophia, Josh, Indy and I, also known as the “(Inset Team Name Here)”, were in the Fine Art challenge. Although there were a lot of things to do within three months, our focuses can fall into five categories:
- Central Challenge — Story
The overall topic is a trickster who attempts to overcome a tricky situation. For the challenge, our trickster uses information or secrets to trick or break rules. Most of the points came from successful storytelling and dramatic character portrayal. - Central Challenge — Illusion
Illusion should be designed to be wrongly perceived and enhance the story. In other words, tricking the audience using visual and or auditory effects. The success of the illusion would be evaluated based on its impact on the story and audience. Creativity is also important - Central Challenge — Costume Transformation
The costume transformation is used to enhance the story; however, it must not be worn by the trickster. Similar to illusion, the appraisers would evaluate the impact of the costume transformation but also the technical design and method used to accomplish the task. - 2 Team Choice Elements
The two team choice elements contain 15% of the total points. It must be specific and not used for illusion or costume transformation. The team choice elements represent the interest or talents of the team. Each element would be assessed in originality, quality, effort, integration and creativity. - Instant Challenge
The instant challenge contains 25% of the total points. It would be a random, quick challenge to test how well you work under pressure and uncertainty. At the same time, the appraisers also looked for collaboration and creativity throughout the challenge.
(Overall Scoring)
(Central Challenge Scoring)
After we divide the challenge into smaller tasks, we assigned roles and responsibilities. Amy was the overall manager, and she would be working on the story; meanwhile, Indy was responsible for character development and helping Amy with costume transformation. Josh and Sophia would design and paint our backdrops according to the story, which was one of our team choice elements. On the other hand, I will be carrying out the illusions and the second team choice element — background sound effects.
What?
What actions or processes did we take to carry our ideas out?
After knowing our responsibilities, we started working on our part. However, as we were uncertain of what’s the soul of the challenge, we were lost and unsure what to do. For example, should we write a story based on Character or should we develop a character based on a story? Should the Illusion be one of the tricks used by the trickster or accidental? We were stuck on questions like that leading to the “planning period”. During the planning period, we gathered many ideas but lacked the action to turn them into reality. Fortunately, Amy came up with an awesome idea for a story about time travel. While the story and the script were processed, we experimented with our ideas. Arguably, the ideas we gained from the “planning period” laid a foundation for the “hands-on period”; however, we have lost a valuable amount of time which caused the rush later on.
Meanwhile, we practiced our instant challenge during the first and second rehearsals with the teachers. Although we struggle with different instant challenges, the experience allows us to handle our instant challenges faster and better. Looking back, it’s the more we suffer from instant challenges, the more prepared we are.
Time flew by quickly, but we were still not prepared. As we sensed the time urgency, we ended our planning stage and took action to turn ideas into reality. Although we managed to finish the costume transformation and our illusion, we still had to practice our acting and paint the backdrops. At the same time, we have created many props for our performance. However, time was not on our side as we only had one week left by the time we reached this stage. Eventually, we finished the two team choice elements before the tournament.
Results
As we pulled everything together the day before the tournament, we never had the chance to do any more rehearsals and adjustments. Worse yet, we discovered that the backdrop and the light pole, which were part of the props, were too big to fit in the room. In the end, we managed to tell the story using illusions and props. But as you can see, it wasn’t impressive nor outstanding. On the other hand, our instant challenge went well. Even though we came 2nd in the tournament, the scores or placement would change how I view my work
Key Lesson: What went wrong?
During the DI era, I made many mistakes and caused many problems, which led to my defeat at the tournament. Looking back, I realized I never put in my best effort. It was painful when I realized what I could have done to enhance our performance. In other words, I figured it was me the whole time letting the team down. Here are the six main points that summarized most of my mistakes
- Dependent
Dependent was one of the most significant mistakes I have made throughout the months. I relied on environmental conditions and my teammates when working on a project. This mistake was costly because it created more workload for my teammates and decreased productivity - Lack of communication and collaboration
While one of the purposes of this project was to collaborate with others, I have failed miserably. My miscommunication led to the failure of the double-sided backdrops, which had different sizes. Because of that, we had lots of chaos when we were trying to pull everything together before the tournament. - Misplanning
From the start of this challenge, I have overestimated the time and space we had. I lacked a sense of time and urgency which was why the planning period was so long. Because of the wrong assumptions, we have also made the backdrop and the light pole too big. Furthermore, we never have a backup plan for obstacles and surprises. - No sense of risk or quality
We took huge risks when we decided to use LED lights for costume Transformation. I found it unbelievable how I never considered the risk of that and how well it would turn out without darkness. No sense of risks or quality forced us to deal with more troubles later on, such as the backdrop transformation - Ineffective/ Inefficient use of time and resources
Although I have devoted a decent amount of time, I was inefficient and ineffective in making remarkable progress. Because my solutions to problems were often ineffective, I have spent more time and effort than needed. Potentially, the time I “wasted” because of inefficiency could be used to help out my teammates - Lost of the overall picture
While I focused on the task and project, I lost track of the overall picture. In other words, “I have won the battle but lost the war”. Looking back, I spent too much time refining the details and spent almost no time reviewing the purpose of the task. In the end, the products I produced were often irrelevant.
Conclusion & the answer
“How might we learn and experience the creative process while developing our creativity, curiosity, and courage?”
Even though this unit was challenging, it was still enjoyable. While I was working on the light pole, I experimented with many solutions to make it stable. I have designed and built many structures aiming to prevent them from falling. Unfortunately, none of them work well in the end. Nevertheless, I have learned a lot of structural techniques and had fun. Destination Imagination is a simulator that tests our courage and resilience while encouraging us to think creatively and globally. Although the result may not be as well as expected, I have never regretted participating in DI