By Julia Kim
Staff Writer
It cannot be denied that the workplace is rapidly changing. Technology has a prominent impact, in addition to playing a huge role, on 21st century offices as technology continues to develop, and school may not suffice to prepare students for the change. However, there is one solution: Destination ImagiNation.
Destination ImagiNation presents a broad range of challenges that prompts students to apply creativity, teamwork and problem solving to real-life opportunities and provides the youth of today with chances to learn the altered skills of the 21st century.
“It seems like a great opportunity to familiarize oneself with the newer techniques involved in the newly renovated workplace,” junior Jeanne Feng said. “Along with preparation, [the program] also provides an occasion for every answer to be correct- just to different extents.”
To initiate a youth’s imagination, the program has a compilation of challenges that students work on over an 8-12 week period with a team of 2-7. The challenges are categorized into two divisions: Team and Instant. There are six competitive Team Challenges with specific requirements that must be met, each with a different educational and creative focus; among these are focuses on community service, mechanical design, scientific exploration, fine arts, improvisation and architectural design.
Instant Challenges force students to apply quick critical thinking skills to problems to produce a solution in 5-8 minutes. They can be task-based, performance-based or a mixture of the two and count as a fourth of a team’s score in tournaments.
At tournaments, held annually, teams showcase their solutions before Appraisers (volunteer judges) and live audiences along with undertaking Instant Challenges. Solutions are evaluated on how well requirements are met and the creativity and teamwork involved with the solution.
There are 16 regional competitions in Texas, and the Trinity Valley North Central (TVNC) Regional Tournament was held on March 6 at Coppell High School. The top-placing teams at this competition are invited to participate at the state tournament on April 16-17 in Carrollton. The winners of this tournament have the opportunity to advance to the global finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Although Coppell High School did not prepare a team for this competition, Coppell elementary schools competed. There were ten school districts present at this year’s TVNC regional event.
“I was made aware of the competition earlier in the year by Dr. Revelle,” junior Angela Song said. “Unfortunately, I knew I did not have time to dedicate hours to preparation for the event. The event was held at CHS, yet no one from the school competed. I hope some team will participate next year.”
Destination ImagiNation conducts programs at primarily three levels: the elementary level (EL), the middle level (ML) and the standard level (SL).
“I hope this program will reach students at our school,” junior Sydney Kapp said. “But, considering that technology is really wrapped in our studies, this will just be additional emphasis.”
The program is one effort to expose the real world to the youth of today. This small dose might provide a lot in the long run.
