What is Destination Imagination?

 

DESTINATION IMAGINATION OF NEW YORK, INC. is the New York affiliate of Destination Imagination Inc. - The world’s largest non-profit, volunteer-driven organization devoted to creating educational programs in which student teams gain practical life skills through solving complex open-ended Challenges and presenting their solutions at Tournaments.

Teams of up to seven students organize, choose their challenge and work for months honing their solution. Volunteer team managers (parents or community volunteers) facilitate the group, but cannot give technical or other assistance. Teams present their solutions at local, regional and state tournaments, which narrow the field to about 15 teams from each state or international affiliate.  The following tournaments will occur (so please make sure that you block out these tournament dates):

• The 2020 NYDI Eastern Regional Tournament will take place on a Saturday in March 2020 at a school in Westchester County.  

• The 2020 NYDI Affiliate Tournament will held at SUNY Broome Community College, located in Binghamton, NY, on a Saturday in April 2020.

The teams who advance from the New York State Affliliate Tournament have an opportunity to compete in the ultimate creativity showdown, Global Finals, each May.

• The 2020 Global Finals will held in Kansas City, MO. (It is usually held in the days leading up to Memorial Day weekend.  So please block out Memorial Day Weekend 2020.)

The Destination Imagination® competition has two components:

• Instant Challenges teach students to respond quickly to the unplanned event by requiring them to solve a fun, surprise challenge on the spot. Teams must work together to quickly assess the situation and generate an appropriate and creative response within just a few minutes.

• Team Challenges require teams to utilize each member’s skills in such diverse areas as art, writing, technology, performance, engineering, and music to create a unique solution that can take from several weeks to several months to develop. Students learn to work together as they practice project management skills by meeting deadlines imposed by tournament dates and completing their solution within a specified budget. Teams present their solutions before a live audience and panel of appraisers. Scoring is based on criteria specified in the challenge, which usually includes analysis of the team’s innovation, risk-taking and teamwork.