Fun at the Destination: Imagination! State Tournament
One of the groups that I've been affiliated with for a while now is called Destination: Imagination!. I participated in middle school when it was known as Odyssey of the Mind, and in college I got involved at the local level judging the kids' presentations. Now I'm a regional challenge master, and it's one of the things that look forward to the most every year.
We had our state tournament yesterday in Wenatchee, which I think is one of the most beautiful places in all of Washington state. 19 teams presented in my challenge, called Kidz Rulz, and they all did a spectacular job. It's a great thing seeing creative kids given a chance to cut loose and show what they can do; it's something that we don't encourage nearly enough of.
Another great thing about the state tournament is that I don't have to do a whole heck of a lot. The last couple of years I've had teams at the regional tournament. This year I had 4 teams (2 first grade teams, 1 2nd grade, and 1 group of 5th graders), on top of my challenge master duties, and that made for a very, very hard day. At state, though, I mainly get to sit, watch, and point out the neat things I saw. That's a nice burden to have.
The only downer to the weekend was my roommate for Friday night. He was a snorer without peer. He gave me fair warning that I might want to turn on the fan in the room to provide a little white noise, and that was just about the only saving grace I had. I woke up once an hour until finally throwing in the towel at about 5:00 a.m., and I'd like to thank the good people at Red Bull for helping me to get through the day.
Another nice thing about the trip is the drive. Going to Wenatchee from Spokane I took I-90 and cut up through Quincy; it was raining, and when you go that way you drive right into East Wenatchee, where the hotel was. I came back on Highway 2, which takes you through several small towns (Almira, Waterville, Coulee, Hartline, Wilbur, Creston, Davenport, Reardan) and lots of wheat fields. There's one stretch of the highway right outside of Waterville that is arrow straight for better than 10 miles and offers miles of views in every direction. There was hardly any traffic, either, so it was just me, Woody Guthrie, and the open road. Very moment of Zen.
As I drew closer to home, though, something I'd read before about light pollution came back to me. You could clearly see the glow of Spokane on the horizon from Creston, which is nearly 40 miles away from the city. Part of the illusion was a giant white cloud that seemed to be hanging over the city, but it was still weird to me to see that much glow from so far away.
Anyhow, that was the end of the DI tournament season for this year. It was a good time. I don't think I'm going to be able to coach next year after the beating I took this year, but if they'll bring me back as RCM I'm happy to keep coming.
If you'd like more information about DI in Washington State you can visit the homepage of the Washington Imagination Network (WIN) here.
We had our state tournament yesterday in Wenatchee, which I think is one of the most beautiful places in all of Washington state. 19 teams presented in my challenge, called Kidz Rulz, and they all did a spectacular job. It's a great thing seeing creative kids given a chance to cut loose and show what they can do; it's something that we don't encourage nearly enough of.
Another great thing about the state tournament is that I don't have to do a whole heck of a lot. The last couple of years I've had teams at the regional tournament. This year I had 4 teams (2 first grade teams, 1 2nd grade, and 1 group of 5th graders), on top of my challenge master duties, and that made for a very, very hard day. At state, though, I mainly get to sit, watch, and point out the neat things I saw. That's a nice burden to have.
The only downer to the weekend was my roommate for Friday night. He was a snorer without peer. He gave me fair warning that I might want to turn on the fan in the room to provide a little white noise, and that was just about the only saving grace I had. I woke up once an hour until finally throwing in the towel at about 5:00 a.m., and I'd like to thank the good people at Red Bull for helping me to get through the day.
Another nice thing about the trip is the drive. Going to Wenatchee from Spokane I took I-90 and cut up through Quincy; it was raining, and when you go that way you drive right into East Wenatchee, where the hotel was. I came back on Highway 2, which takes you through several small towns (Almira, Waterville, Coulee, Hartline, Wilbur, Creston, Davenport, Reardan) and lots of wheat fields. There's one stretch of the highway right outside of Waterville that is arrow straight for better than 10 miles and offers miles of views in every direction. There was hardly any traffic, either, so it was just me, Woody Guthrie, and the open road. Very moment of Zen.
As I drew closer to home, though, something I'd read before about light pollution came back to me. You could clearly see the glow of Spokane on the horizon from Creston, which is nearly 40 miles away from the city. Part of the illusion was a giant white cloud that seemed to be hanging over the city, but it was still weird to me to see that much glow from so far away.
Anyhow, that was the end of the DI tournament season for this year. It was a good time. I don't think I'm going to be able to coach next year after the beating I took this year, but if they'll bring me back as RCM I'm happy to keep coming.
If you'd like more information about DI in Washington State you can visit the homepage of the Washington Imagination Network (WIN) here.
posted by Ryan at 3:47 PM
1 Comments:
Odyssey of the Mind still exists and is/was/always will be better than DI. DI is a shadow of what Odyssey of the Mind is, and it seems that it always will be. Odyssey of the Mind has the upper hand in the creative problem solving department. I think you should become a Problem Captain for Odyssey of the Mind instead. I think it's funny how DI tries to pick different names for the exact same things in Odyssey of the Mind.
Spontaneous = Instant Challenge???
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