Creating the script...

At our last Destination Imagination meeting, students worked on creating their script. To make sure that each person has a say, they were grouped in pairs to brainstorm scene ideas. After each pair wrote their ideas down, they drew a sketch of the scene and presented them to the group.

The first sketch idea was done by Ruby and Maeve. They created a scene where Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat. Here is their sketch.


The next sketch idea was done by Coretta and Katherine. They also believe that the first scene should start with Rosa Parks making the choice to give up her seat. Here is their visual interpretation.



The last sketch idea was done by Alex and Erin. In their scene, they too, believe that the starting point should be with Rosa Parks decision to give up her seat. They then have Martin Luther King dreaming about Rosa Parks being forced into the time machine. Here is their visual interpretation.

Inventors and Leaders

After students seem to have a good understanding of what an instant challenge is, we can then start working on the big challenge as well. The big challenge this year for our group is to choose something from history and change it. Think about what happened in the past and how might it have been different? What if it did not work? What if it had been bigger? What if it did something else? They must show the judges what MIGHT have happened.

They must also create a play that is no longer than 8 minutes. For this play, they must create believable characters that can either be people, animals, or objects. The plot of the play must also have a good beginning, middle, and end. They must also create a song. They can make up their own song, or make new words to a song they already know. The last thing that they need to incorporate is a magical prop. They must use four shapes in some way on their prop.

In order to prepare students for their big challenge, we read books such as What Would It be Like to Live 100 Years from Now, by Ann McGovern. We discussed questions like what would it be like to live in a society that didn't have television, or electricity?

We also looked at several inventions such as chewing gum, the airplane, the car, the light bulb, and peanut butter, just to name a few. We discussed what kind of characteristics it takes to invent something and what the world would be like without these inventions.

We then studied Civil Rights Leaders such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Ruby Bridges, and John F Kennedy. We discussed what it means to feel left out and how African Americans must have felt with this movement of "separate, but equal." We also defined segregation and asked students how they might feel living during this time period.

Students then decided that they would like to focus on Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King for their historical reference. They decided that their magical prop would be a school bus that would propel them back into time. The questions the students kept coming back to was "What if Rosa Parks had NOT given up her seat?" How would this have changed history? While Ruby, Maeve, and Erin worked on creating the bus, Alex, Coretta, and Katherine worked on the script. I have included a picture of the magical school bus at the top. So far, we are off to an excellent start!!

A Passion for History....

This year I have been given the extraordinary privilege of coaching Destination Imagination to a group of second graders at IHM/Saint Luke's Catholic School. This group is very motivated and I believe has the creativity and the ambition to excel at this year's challenge.

For the first couple of weeks, our primary focus was on instant challenges. These activities are short, usually running no longer than ten minutes, where students demonstrate their abilities/skills in creativity, logic, building, and teamwork in order to finish a challenge successfully. Some of the challenges have been things such as:

1) Students will brainstorm as many ways that you can use an every day item such as a spoon or a straw.

2) Students will have five minutes to create a structure that is 3 feet tall with only the items in the bag. They must also explain what you did and how you did it.

3) Students will have five minutes to build a sculpture out of leggos that best describes their school and create a skit that highlights their main points.

4) If you could invent anything, what invention would you make that would make the world a better place? Why do you feel that this particular invention is so important?

5) Students will have ten minutes to create a skit that demonstrates what true teamwork would look like.

Most of these challenges combine building, teamwork, creativity, and critical thinking skills.