Destination Imagination Invites Students Around the World to Compete in the 2016-2017 Challenge Program Season

Engaging learning experiences encourage students to solve STEAM-based challenges and learn the skills needed for the 21st century workforce

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Destination Imagination

Sep 01, 2016, 07:03 ET

CHERRY HILL, N.J., Sept. 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Destination Imagination (DI), a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching students the creative process and project management skills through hands-on science, technology, engineering, visual arts and mathematics (STEAM) as well as social entrepreneurship challenges, today announced the kick-off of its 2016-2017 Challenge Program revealing a new series of engaging academic challenges. The annual DI Challenge Program is designed to prepare Generation Z students with the skills needed to thrive in an ever-changing economy and 21st century workforce.

Each year, Destination Imagination works with educators and industry experts to develop new academic Challenges in the fields of STEM, the arts, social entrepreneurship and early learning. Students work in teams to research, design and build a solution to their preferred Challenge. In solving a Challenge, they learn the creative process—a powerful learning tool that helps students assess problems, reflect on their progress, learn from failure and turn their original ideas into reality.

Entering its 17th consecutive year, Destination Imagination invites kindergarten through university-level students from around the globe to form teams and work together to solve one of the seven new Team Challenges of their choice:

Technical Challenge (Show & Tech): Teams will write and present a story, build a stage on which their performance takes place, and add a technical effect to amaze the audience.
Scientific Challenge (Top Secret): Teams will research cryptography and steganography and incorporate the techniques into an original team-created sketch. Teams will also design and build a gadget that appears to be an everyday item.
Engineering Challenge (In It Together): Teams will design, build and test multiple freestanding structures that work together to support as much weight as possible. Teams will also develop and present a collaborative solution to a global issue.
Fine Arts Challenge (Vanished!): Teams will research the meanings, roles and uses of color and present a team-created story about how the disappearance of a color changes the world. Teams will also use technical theater methods to create a vanishing act.
Improvisational Challenge (3-Peat): Teams will test their spontaneity, collaboration and storytelling skills as they create and present three improvisational sketches from the same story prompt. Teams will need to present each sketch in a different performance genre.
Service Learning / Project Outreach® Challenge (Ready, Willing & Fable): Teams will identify, design, plan and carry out a project that addresses a real community need. Teams will also create a live presentation of a team-created fable that integrates information about the project.
Early Learning / Rising Stars! ® Challenge (Save the Day): Preschool through second-grade kids will learn about simple and complex machines. As a team, they will use simple machines to create and build a new invention and then present a play about how the new invention helps to save the day.

"To succeed in an innovation-driven economy, Generation Z students will need to learn how to collaborate and work in teams, think creatively and critically, gain confidence to step out of their comfort zones to pursue novel ideas, and be able to value the diversity of the ideas and skills of others," said Dr. Chuck Cadle, CEO of Destination Imagination. "Our annual Destination Imagination Challenge Program provides future scientists, engineers, artists, entrepreneurs and creators a fun opportunity to explore real world issues, while at the same time acquiring these important skills needed in the 21st century."

The annual DI Challenge Program takes place from September through May. More than 150,000 students from 48 states and 30 countries, including China, Turkey and Poland, participated in the 2015-2016 season of Destination Imagination. At the start of every season, DI teams select a Challenge that aligns with their interests and passion. During the first calendar quarter, teams have the opportunity to participate in a regional competition where their creative solutions are assessed by a panel of trained appraisers, ranging from educators to artists to engineers. Each team solution is scored on a variety of elements including originality, workmanship, presentation and teamwork. Teams with the highest rankings at the regional-level advance to the Affiliate (state or country) academic competitions.

The top-scoring DI teams from the Affiliate competitions are then invited to showcase their innovative challenge solutions at Global Finals—the world's largest celebration of student creativity and the culminating international competition for the Destination Imagination Challenge Program season. Global Finals 2016 attracted more than 17,000 attendees and over 1,400 participating teams from 20 countries.

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About Destination Imagination
Destination Imagination, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) volunteer-led non-profit organization whose purpose is to inspire and equip students to become the next generation of innovators and leaders. The organization seeks to connect students to opportunities emerging in the global digital economy. The most popular education offering is the Challenge Program, where student teams solve open-ended STEM, arts and service learning Challenges and present their solutions to trained Appraisers. Founded in 1982, Destination Imagination has impacted more than 1.5 million students. To learn more, please visit http://destinationimagination.org.

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