Destination Imagination
Grab your ticket to ride! It's time to organize into our Destination ImagiNation (DI) teams for the 2007/2008 school year. Let's talk a bit about the amazing DI journey that you could take this year.
What is DI? Short answer: A fun, extracurricular activity emphasizing creative problem-solving and collaboration. Working together in teams of up to 7 students each, students first must select one of the zany complex challenges to solve (their Destination). Each challenge includes technical and artistic elements. Once they know where they are going, the creative synthesis work begins (that's the Imagination part). The kids have to figure out what the problem requirements are, and how they are going to creatively and uniquely satisfy those requirements. Thus, the kids experience (with lots of laughter) the process of successfully solving life's big, multi-faceted challenges. 
Who does DI? Last year, Polaris had 10 student teams (K through 5th). Our kids just love to showcase their creative problem-solving skills - and all the Polaris solutions were awesome! This year, we are encouraging interested parents and students to seed and grow their own teams. Each team will need at least one adult team manager (TM), preferably a parent of one of the team members. Other students can then join that parent-child seed to form a viable DI team (up to 7 children maximum). Now is the time to recruit playful parents and friends! We also may be able to help connect you to other Polaris parents/students who are interested in forming a DI team. When do you do DI? Complete teams should begin work on their selected problems ASAP. The Denver regional DI tournament is Saturday, April 5 2008. Note that teams will be able to decide in March whether they feel ready to participate in this festive competition. Teams typically work together weekly for a few hours at a time, preferably at the TM's home. Electives also are a good time to meet, mainly to work on the team's improvisational problem-solving skill set. Teams will need to work with each other to establish best date/time for this extracurricular activity.
Where can I learn more? If you are a parent planning or interested in being a TM this year for a Polaris DI team, please attend our school's DI meeting on Tuesday, October 23 at 6:30 PM in the school library. If you cannot make this meeting but still want to play, please contact one of us by email as soon as possible. Please contact us also if your student is interested in being a part of a Polaris DI team but has been unsuccessful in identifying a team to join.
We invite you to join the ride to another spectacularly successful DI program year at Polaris!
Leigh Alvarado Benson (sonofben@comcast.net) and Angela Knopf (angela.knopf@mac.com), Polaris DI school co-coordinators.
Still can't get enough DI, try this link......http://www.idodi.org/