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jianantonicDI stands for Destination Imagination. It is a creative problem solving competition for kids in elementary school through college. You may have heard of it as OM, Odyssey of the Mind, a program which still exists. When I was in 11th grade, there was a question of sponsorship and a lawsuit that threatened to halt OM, so a team of dedicated folks spun off DI to ensure that kids would still have this program. OM didn't die out, so the two programs coexist now, though DI seems to be the larger of the two now. I'm not sure on the statistics, truthfully, but it's certainly grown a lot in the time I've been involved.
The competitions are divided a couple of different ways. There are 5 challenges that the teams get to choose from at the beginning of the year, and then there are age divisions: primary (non-competitive for little kids), elementary (grades 3-5), middle (6-8), secondary (9-12), university (for college students under 23). Very few colleges have teams that participate - by that age, most DI alums start coaching their own teams rather than competing further.
The challenges, or problems, always stress a different skill. There's always a building problem, a technical problem, a scientific principles problem, an improvisational acting problem, and a theater problem. Each challenge has several required elements, and all teams are required to present a skit no longer than 8 minutes and on a $100 budget at the competition.
Competition starts at the regional level. Regional winners move on to states, and state winners move on to global finals, which has all the state winners plus teams from dozens of other countries.
These central challenges make up 2/3 of a team's score. The other 1/3 comes from an instant challenge. Instant challenges are given in a closed room where the teams are sworn to secrecy, because every team in the same challenge will be presented with the same instant challenge. They know nothing about this challenge before they get there, and usually they get no more than a few minutes of preparation and performance time once they are in the challenge room. There is no audience for these, because they are very serious about keeping the challenges secret so no team has an advantage. These can be incredibly nerve-wracking. Not every team member is required to participate in the instant challenges. We had one teammate when I was in high school who never did the instant challenges because it was just too much stress for her.
Awards: In addition to first place and on down the line, there are three special awards given at the judges' discretion. The Spirit of Discovery and Imagination award is presented to teams or individuals who are exemplary competitors - sportsmanship, thinking outside the box, etc. If memory serves, my teams have won 2 of these.
The Renaissance Award is given to a team or individual who demonstrates exceptional design or skill. I believe we won this one once, senior year.
The DaVinci (or DIvinci) Award is given to a team or individual who demonstrates exceptional creativity (regardless of skill or talent), and I know we won one of these, at states our senior year, for our pop up book scenery and farting sheep.
Creativity and sportsmanship are huge in DI. The performances are expected to be humorous but also family-friendly, so a lot of emphasis is put on silliness and wit.
Teams start working at the beginning of each school year to prepare for their regional competitions, which are held in March. It's a lot of work, a lot of chaos, and a lot of fun.
I got started with DI (it was OM then) in 8th grade when some friends encouraged me to join their team. Mr. Vancho was our coach, Ben Walter was our only boy, and our 7-person team was about as silly as they come. We did the balsa wood structure problem, wrote a ridiculous skit riddled with inside jokes that of course the judges didn't get, and had a generally grand time doing it. For most of us, it was our first year of competition, but the vets warned us that Appomattox Middle School had a long history of domination, and we were competing against them this year. I don't know if I've ever screamed so loudly as when they announced second place at the regionals, because when they said "Appomattox Middle School," we knew that we had won. Not that there were only two teams, but our structure had held by far the most weight and we knew that Appomattox was the only team that had come close to challenging us. "We beat Appomattox!" became our team cheer. Never having competed at the next level, we were pretty much humiliated at states and did not place, but we hadn't expected to win there (I don't think?) and we had a great time.
I didn't participate in 9th grade because I joined the basketball team and was afraid I would never be able to go to DI because of basketball practice. I supported my old teammates at regionals, where they won again with a much more refined skit than we'd had the year before, and being there made me ache to return. I vowed to find a way to balance basketball and OM, and rejoined the team in 10th grade after a slight mixup of teammates. That year we did the theatrical problem, a Shakespeare theme, and while our skit was good and I believe the high scoring central challenge in our division, we bombed the instant challenge and didn't move on to states that year. I was unable to participate in the regional competition because of a drama trip, but I still helped write the skit and practiced with the team all year in hopes of competing with them at states. Oh well.
In 11th grade, we got serious. Enough of this balsa bullshit and theater crap. We were tech geeks, and if we were going to excel, we needed to pick the right challenge. That was also the year that Ben W quit the team and was replaced by the artistic and charismatic Josh H, who added some much-needed diversity to our team. We were kind of in a humor rut before he came along. We selected a problem that required us to build a roller coaster for tennis balls. It's a good thing we didn't have any competition at our level in regionals and got an automatic bid to states, because our roller coaster sucked. 80% of our score was based on how fast we could get the tennis balls through the coaster, and we had no method of propulsion. Our skit was hilarious - Josh was Martha Fruart and I was Richard Persimmons (the competition had a fruit theme that year) and our story was well-written and funny. At regionals, we realized that some of the middle school teams were using leaf blowers to speed their tennis balls up through a dryer tube roller coaster, so we borrowed that idea and completely reworked our coaster for states. Unfortunately, we had technical difficulties there. We got to the part of our skit where we were to start launching tennis balls, and our leaf blower wouldn't turn on. While five teammates panicked behind the scenes to get the leaf blower working, Josh and I improvised for about 7 of our 8 minutes out front. Then finally, we heard the roar of the leaf blower, breathed a huge sigh of relief, and ran the coaster. The problem? No one had plugged it in. We got full credit for the improv aspect of our skit (a required element that year - lucky us), and even though the skit went nothing like we'd planned and we only got in a few runs of our roller coaster, it was enough for a very, very high score, and we went to the awards ceremony knowing that the only thing keeping us from globals was the instant challenge...we didn't feel great about it, but not so bad that we thought we'd blown it...I don't remember ever being as nervous as I was that day.
Again, we knew there was only one team that was really standing in our way - I believe it was the Governor's School that year? - but wouldn't you know, they got second, and we took 1st in the state for our first ever trip to global finals - in Ames, IA that year. Hooray. (The years before it had been in Orlando and Tokyo.) We were good, but so was everyone else who'd won their state. We finished 13th out of a zillion that year, and picked up some really great ideas from some world championship teams for the next year.
We stuck with our talents and went with the technical challenge again our senior year. This time it was a special effects challenge, and we had to present a skit that not only included a physical change, levitation, sound effect, and I'm forgetting one... but we had to also create a device that would show a reaction to each of these effects; that reaction being a special effect of its own. We'd gotten the idea at globals to do a pop-up book for scenery, so we built each of our special effects into a nursery rhyme - a different page of our book. Josh was Little Bo Peep that year, and his sheep (our device) had run away. He chased the sheep through each page of this nursery rhyme book. When there was a visual effect (Mary Mary Quite Contrary - me - waters her flowers on her page of the book and they change colors), the sheep's eyes flashed. When there was a noise effect, the sheep's ears spun. I can't remember all of the effects, but one of the required elements was that we have one special effect that the judges can directly observe, so we had the sheep fart on them (from eating Mary's flowers). We installed a fan in the sheep's ass that conveniently made a farty sound when turned on, and it blew mint-scented air right at the judges. Not the worst farts in the world. Also, our entire skit was in rhyming verse that year. We got near perfect scores on absolutely every aspect, and we swept the awards that year, getting one each of Spirit of DI, Renaissance, and DaVinci, as well as first in regionals and states. We didn't win the world, but we had an awesome time, and my two trips to DI world finals are some of the happiest memories of my life.
Since graduating high school, I've been involved as a coach and a judge in various competitions. I still miss competing so much, but I think being a team manager is the closest I'll come to that, and it's loads of fun.
This year, I coached a team of 5 9th grade girls. My boss used to be their team manager, and his daughter is on the team, but he wanted a break and I was willing to step in. These girls are absolutely boy crazy and about as nuts as can be, but they're brilliant kids and I had a great time working with them. They've all done it before, but they've never won anything. All the parents said that this year they saw some marvelous improvements and they could tell my experience at globals was a big difference for the kids. I don't know about that. Coaches aren't allowed to give the kids ANY ideas - we're really just there to keep them on task and make sure they fill out all their paper work. Everything else is completely kid-managed. In fact, the teams are disqualified if their coach helps AT ALL, including even carrying their props for them on the day of the competition.
The girls didn't win today - their competition was a bit older and more experienced - but they did a fantastic job and were all proud of themselves. I'm very proud of them, too. They got 2nd place and everyone said they were fantastic - and it's the truth. I really hope they'll want me back next year as their coach again. I had so much fun.
At the awards ceremony, I found myself welling up hard core each time they announced a winner. It was such a shot of nostalgia to see those teams jumping up and down, screaming and hugging. By the time I got to senior year, we expected to win, and honestly it wasn't that exciting when we did. But I think back to 8th grade, my first year, when OMG WE BEAT APPOMATTOX, and then 11th grade, the first time we won the state, and I wonder if I'll ever get that excited about anything again. That's not to say that my life is sure to be boring from here on out, it's just that I was THAT PASSIONATE about it, and I miss it so much, even though I'm still involved.
So that's DI, in way more than a nutshell. Thanks for reading. If you got to the end of this, you know just how much the program means to me. And if you have kids, I certainly hope you'll consider getting them involved in this program. It's wholesome, educational, fun, and free to participate. And have I ever mentioned that I got my job because I'm a DI alumnus? It's true. My boss says he'd hire a whole office of DI kids if he could find us. Don't ever force your kids into something they're not interested in, but if they're theatrical or creative in any way, I can't think of any better way to harness those gifts than DI.
Peace.
The competitions are divided a couple of different ways. There are 5 challenges that the teams get to choose from at the beginning of the year, and then there are age divisions: primary (non-competitive for little kids), elementary (grades 3-5), middle (6-8), secondary (9-12), university (for college students under 23). Very few colleges have teams that participate - by that age, most DI alums start coaching their own teams rather than competing further.
The challenges, or problems, always stress a different skill. There's always a building problem, a technical problem, a scientific principles problem, an improvisational acting problem, and a theater problem. Each challenge has several required elements, and all teams are required to present a skit no longer than 8 minutes and on a $100 budget at the competition.
Competition starts at the regional level. Regional winners move on to states, and state winners move on to global finals, which has all the state winners plus teams from dozens of other countries.
These central challenges make up 2/3 of a team's score. The other 1/3 comes from an instant challenge. Instant challenges are given in a closed room where the teams are sworn to secrecy, because every team in the same challenge will be presented with the same instant challenge. They know nothing about this challenge before they get there, and usually they get no more than a few minutes of preparation and performance time once they are in the challenge room. There is no audience for these, because they are very serious about keeping the challenges secret so no team has an advantage. These can be incredibly nerve-wracking. Not every team member is required to participate in the instant challenges. We had one teammate when I was in high school who never did the instant challenges because it was just too much stress for her.
Awards: In addition to first place and on down the line, there are three special awards given at the judges' discretion. The Spirit of Discovery and Imagination award is presented to teams or individuals who are exemplary competitors - sportsmanship, thinking outside the box, etc. If memory serves, my teams have won 2 of these.
The Renaissance Award is given to a team or individual who demonstrates exceptional design or skill. I believe we won this one once, senior year.
The DaVinci (or DIvinci) Award is given to a team or individual who demonstrates exceptional creativity (regardless of skill or talent), and I know we won one of these, at states our senior year, for our pop up book scenery and farting sheep.
Creativity and sportsmanship are huge in DI. The performances are expected to be humorous but also family-friendly, so a lot of emphasis is put on silliness and wit.
Teams start working at the beginning of each school year to prepare for their regional competitions, which are held in March. It's a lot of work, a lot of chaos, and a lot of fun.
I got started with DI (it was OM then) in 8th grade when some friends encouraged me to join their team. Mr. Vancho was our coach, Ben Walter was our only boy, and our 7-person team was about as silly as they come. We did the balsa wood structure problem, wrote a ridiculous skit riddled with inside jokes that of course the judges didn't get, and had a generally grand time doing it. For most of us, it was our first year of competition, but the vets warned us that Appomattox Middle School had a long history of domination, and we were competing against them this year. I don't know if I've ever screamed so loudly as when they announced second place at the regionals, because when they said "Appomattox Middle School," we knew that we had won. Not that there were only two teams, but our structure had held by far the most weight and we knew that Appomattox was the only team that had come close to challenging us. "We beat Appomattox!" became our team cheer. Never having competed at the next level, we were pretty much humiliated at states and did not place, but we hadn't expected to win there (I don't think?) and we had a great time.
I didn't participate in 9th grade because I joined the basketball team and was afraid I would never be able to go to DI because of basketball practice. I supported my old teammates at regionals, where they won again with a much more refined skit than we'd had the year before, and being there made me ache to return. I vowed to find a way to balance basketball and OM, and rejoined the team in 10th grade after a slight mixup of teammates. That year we did the theatrical problem, a Shakespeare theme, and while our skit was good and I believe the high scoring central challenge in our division, we bombed the instant challenge and didn't move on to states that year. I was unable to participate in the regional competition because of a drama trip, but I still helped write the skit and practiced with the team all year in hopes of competing with them at states. Oh well.
In 11th grade, we got serious. Enough of this balsa bullshit and theater crap. We were tech geeks, and if we were going to excel, we needed to pick the right challenge. That was also the year that Ben W quit the team and was replaced by the artistic and charismatic Josh H, who added some much-needed diversity to our team. We were kind of in a humor rut before he came along. We selected a problem that required us to build a roller coaster for tennis balls. It's a good thing we didn't have any competition at our level in regionals and got an automatic bid to states, because our roller coaster sucked. 80% of our score was based on how fast we could get the tennis balls through the coaster, and we had no method of propulsion. Our skit was hilarious - Josh was Martha Fruart and I was Richard Persimmons (the competition had a fruit theme that year) and our story was well-written and funny. At regionals, we realized that some of the middle school teams were using leaf blowers to speed their tennis balls up through a dryer tube roller coaster, so we borrowed that idea and completely reworked our coaster for states. Unfortunately, we had technical difficulties there. We got to the part of our skit where we were to start launching tennis balls, and our leaf blower wouldn't turn on. While five teammates panicked behind the scenes to get the leaf blower working, Josh and I improvised for about 7 of our 8 minutes out front. Then finally, we heard the roar of the leaf blower, breathed a huge sigh of relief, and ran the coaster. The problem? No one had plugged it in. We got full credit for the improv aspect of our skit (a required element that year - lucky us), and even though the skit went nothing like we'd planned and we only got in a few runs of our roller coaster, it was enough for a very, very high score, and we went to the awards ceremony knowing that the only thing keeping us from globals was the instant challenge...we didn't feel great about it, but not so bad that we thought we'd blown it...I don't remember ever being as nervous as I was that day.
Again, we knew there was only one team that was really standing in our way - I believe it was the Governor's School that year? - but wouldn't you know, they got second, and we took 1st in the state for our first ever trip to global finals - in Ames, IA that year. Hooray. (The years before it had been in Orlando and Tokyo.) We were good, but so was everyone else who'd won their state. We finished 13th out of a zillion that year, and picked up some really great ideas from some world championship teams for the next year.
We stuck with our talents and went with the technical challenge again our senior year. This time it was a special effects challenge, and we had to present a skit that not only included a physical change, levitation, sound effect, and I'm forgetting one... but we had to also create a device that would show a reaction to each of these effects; that reaction being a special effect of its own. We'd gotten the idea at globals to do a pop-up book for scenery, so we built each of our special effects into a nursery rhyme - a different page of our book. Josh was Little Bo Peep that year, and his sheep (our device) had run away. He chased the sheep through each page of this nursery rhyme book. When there was a visual effect (Mary Mary Quite Contrary - me - waters her flowers on her page of the book and they change colors), the sheep's eyes flashed. When there was a noise effect, the sheep's ears spun. I can't remember all of the effects, but one of the required elements was that we have one special effect that the judges can directly observe, so we had the sheep fart on them (from eating Mary's flowers). We installed a fan in the sheep's ass that conveniently made a farty sound when turned on, and it blew mint-scented air right at the judges. Not the worst farts in the world. Also, our entire skit was in rhyming verse that year. We got near perfect scores on absolutely every aspect, and we swept the awards that year, getting one each of Spirit of DI, Renaissance, and DaVinci, as well as first in regionals and states. We didn't win the world, but we had an awesome time, and my two trips to DI world finals are some of the happiest memories of my life.
Since graduating high school, I've been involved as a coach and a judge in various competitions. I still miss competing so much, but I think being a team manager is the closest I'll come to that, and it's loads of fun.
This year, I coached a team of 5 9th grade girls. My boss used to be their team manager, and his daughter is on the team, but he wanted a break and I was willing to step in. These girls are absolutely boy crazy and about as nuts as can be, but they're brilliant kids and I had a great time working with them. They've all done it before, but they've never won anything. All the parents said that this year they saw some marvelous improvements and they could tell my experience at globals was a big difference for the kids. I don't know about that. Coaches aren't allowed to give the kids ANY ideas - we're really just there to keep them on task and make sure they fill out all their paper work. Everything else is completely kid-managed. In fact, the teams are disqualified if their coach helps AT ALL, including even carrying their props for them on the day of the competition.
The girls didn't win today - their competition was a bit older and more experienced - but they did a fantastic job and were all proud of themselves. I'm very proud of them, too. They got 2nd place and everyone said they were fantastic - and it's the truth. I really hope they'll want me back next year as their coach again. I had so much fun.
At the awards ceremony, I found myself welling up hard core each time they announced a winner. It was such a shot of nostalgia to see those teams jumping up and down, screaming and hugging. By the time I got to senior year, we expected to win, and honestly it wasn't that exciting when we did. But I think back to 8th grade, my first year, when OMG WE BEAT APPOMATTOX, and then 11th grade, the first time we won the state, and I wonder if I'll ever get that excited about anything again. That's not to say that my life is sure to be boring from here on out, it's just that I was THAT PASSIONATE about it, and I miss it so much, even though I'm still involved.
So that's DI, in way more than a nutshell. Thanks for reading. If you got to the end of this, you know just how much the program means to me. And if you have kids, I certainly hope you'll consider getting them involved in this program. It's wholesome, educational, fun, and free to participate. And have I ever mentioned that I got my job because I'm a DI alumnus? It's true. My boss says he'd hire a whole office of DI kids if he could find us. Don't ever force your kids into something they're not interested in, but if they're theatrical or creative in any way, I can't think of any better way to harness those gifts than DI.
Peace.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-19 11:00 pm (UTC)I had so much nostalgia on the day...and there were these adorable kids who all turned out to be 2nd graders except for one who was a 3rd grader so they had to do the competitive problem...they left out a huge chunk of their problem and we had to give them a zero score and it broke my heart, but I talked to the coach when he came by to get the scores and he told me about the age thing and how he was really proud of them for getting this far, and it really warmed my heart. :-)
We were also in an artistic rut after Josh, having lost Helen in 10th grade.
And OM/DI hadn't been in Tokyo for a million years, if ever. Well, it was Orlando our 10th grade year, but Tokyo was like in the 80's if anything. We should check that out, but I'm 99% sure the "recent Tokyo" is an urban legend, sadly. It just isn't practical to hold it there, since such a huge percentage of Global teams come from the US.
Probably the kids saw your Globalness as a kind of mascot--it's a bit morale booster to think "My coach made it all the way to globals!" My kids used to say that too, when I was coaching the tiny people in Williamsburg.
(And coaches can carry props out of the car, e.g. Just not onto the performance site, as I recall.)
This was a wonderful post. Thanks for writing it. :-)
And it's true that this is how she got her job! I can attest!
My big memory from winning States the first time was my dad standing on the end of our aisle, gesticulating wildly for us to exit the aisle and run down to get our prize. Man. :-D
no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 12:37 am (UTC)I knew you'd have comments for this post, but I was hoping you'd remind me what all those special effects were our senior year, cause I feel bad for having forgotten. Or maybe I'm not actually forgetting one. We had Mary Mary Quite Contrary with the phenolphthalein flowers that changed colors, Little Boy Blue with the horn which was a sound effect, 4 and 20 blackbirds that levitated before "the king" - was Elvis a special effect, too, or did we just throw that in for bonus points? If Elvis was the physical change effect, what were the flowers? I wish I could watch that on videotape...junior year, too.
Also, did we have a backdrop junior year or was it just open space with our coaster behind us? I don't remember any scenery, but find it hard to believe that we didn't have any.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 01:52 am (UTC)Didn't I give you a whole folder of DI crap? "Vintage." ;-) There might be stuff in there, although it could just as easily have been 10th grade stuff (I distinctly remember musical scores from "Back in the year of 999...").
"Oh, my good friend Humpty Dumpty, have you been sick?" "Yes, I had quite a breakdown, and came out a chick!"
Elvis was going to be the change appearance special effect, but then we thought up the flowers, but kept him in because he's just so damn cool. :-)
We didn't have a backdrop initially (although the coaster did have many løvely decorations) but then Josh made us a beautiful one for either States or Regionals (see comment on artistic talent). There was a "good tree" on one side and a "bad tree" on the other. I was very sad when we put it in the dumpster in Iowa.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 02:02 am (UTC)All the stuff you gave me was from 10th grade.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 01:54 am (UTC)Incidentally, I want to write "Herded Cat" on my hat. My dad might be making me one like that though, I'm not sure. He can make one for you too if you want. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 02:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 03:52 am (UTC)You know he goes by Herder of Cats on the DI forums, right? Hence the "Herded Cat" label. (Just makin' sure.)