Competition in the annual Destination ImagiNation event will begin Friday evening, March 7 and continue throughout the day Saturday, March 8 in an event that brings together hundreds of students, parents and teachers in one of the most colorful and challenging district-wide events of the year.

Destination ImagiNation is designed to help students develop a unique and critical skill set by emphasizing creativity, problem solving, and teamwork.

The action will be held at George Washington High School, 655 S. Monaco St., beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday when eight teams at the elementary level compete in the THEATER smARTS event.

Then on Saturday, beginning at 7:30 a.m. and running until about 5 p.m., another 145 teams are scheduled to compete in a variety of events (listed below).

The awards ceremony will begin at 7:15 p.m. with a parade of primary teams (early elementary grades). Successful teams will move on to a state competition and, potentially, international competition.

The Team Challenges for this year are:

• Lost and Found (Primary Level) - The team's challenge is to make up a play that tells a story about how something is lost and how it is found. In the story, some of the characters will work together to find what is lost by making a plan. The team will make a map that they will use in their story.
• viDIo Adventure (Elementary, Middle & Secondary Levels) - The team's challenge is to create a presentation that portrays a 3-dimensional viDIo Adventure game. The game's theme must tell a story of a modern day quest that must be set in the recent past or present. The team will design and build a seeker that will go through three nations, represented as game levels in the viDIo Game. At each game level, the seeker must overcome an obstacle and collect a reward item. The team will end the story using the reward items from each nation.
• A Change in Direction (Elementary, Middle & Secondary Levels) - The team's challenge is to design two different technical devices that are built from a single set of parts and that perform two different tasks. The team will also design and build a transport system to move the pieces from one location to another along a path with a change in direction, and then reconnect the parts as the second device. The team will also create an original story that includes a surprising change in direction and that ties together the devices, the tasks, the transformation from the first device to the second, and the transport system.
• Once Improv a Time (Elementary, Middle & Secondary Levels) - The team's challenge is to read and research ten classic fairy tales from around the world and pick out some literary elements in each fairy tale. Then, in a 30-minute time period at the tournament the team will create an improvisational skit that combines a randomly chosen surprise setting with some of the randomly chosen literary elements to create an original story with a team-created lesson learned at the end. The team will learn and practice improvisational techniques and use at least one in the skit. Also, during the 30-minute period, they will use only tape and newspaper to create a unique functional object and other items to be used in the skit.
• ConnecDId! (Elementary, Middle & Secondary Levels) - The team's challenge is to find innovative and creative ways to make connections between pieces of wood by designing, building and testing a structure made completely from wood. No other materials, including glue, may be used. During the presentation, the structure will be tested for its load-bearing efficiency by stacking weights on it. In addition, the team will create a presentation that tells the story of connections devised and made by the team, using a Universal Connection Creation in multiple ways as a theatrical prop.
• THEATER smARTS (Elementary, Middle & Secondary Levels) - The team's challenge is to create a performance that tells a story about a troupe of entertainers and their live performance. The story must include a scene in which the entertainers are "in character" and put on a segment of their live performance despite the disruption. The team must integrate three elements of theater arts into the presentation and include scenery that moves or gives the illusion of movement.

In addition to the Team Challenges listed above, each team will participate in the Instant Challenge portion of the tournament. This is the part of the competition where teams are expected to think on their feet, since they won't know what challenge they will be asked to solve until they walk into the Instant Challenge room.

For more information about the event, please contact Becky Muggli in the Gifted & Talented Office, 303-405-8274.