DI is open to all students ranging from kindergarten to university level steudents worldwide. Students form teams of up to 7 members, who select their preferred Challenge and work together to develop a solution to the Challenge. Each team has at least one Team Manager (often a parent or teacher) who helps keep the team on track, but does not assist or interfere with the team’s project.

The exponential growth in new technologies and our 21st century global economy is overtaking K-12 education, hence students and teachers need opportunities to bridge this widening gap. Through the Destination Imagination Program. Here students learn to think on a higher level, broaden their creative and critical minds, enhance their curiosity, build on their unique strengths, and develop essential skills needed for the 21st century work enviorment.

Our 21st century learning programming is cross-curricular and complements K-12 education by fostering curiosity, courage and creativity. Our open-ended academic Challenges stimulate curiosity in children to develop ways in which they can improve the world around them. Courage on the other hand is developed when they hone their unique strengths and abilities and use them to step outside their comfort zone with the aim of collaborating with other, pursuing and presenting their ideas in a clear and well thought out manner. Ultimately creativity is enhanced when an idea is carried through to completion.

Annually, we provide seven fun and engaging open-ended Challenges in science, technology, engineering, visual and performing arts, improvisation, service learning and early learning. Each of these Challenges are designed to enable students to apply their knowledge towards creating new solutions.

During the school year, our participants select one of seven Challenges to solve. At academic competitions, solutions are presented to qualified Appraisers. Participants with the highest scoring Challenge solution progress from regional competitions to state or national level competition to the Global Finals. With more than 17,000 attendees, Global Finals is the world’s largest celebration of creativity.

The Technical Challenge is designed to introduce students to the engineering design process. It enables them to apply real-world STEM concepts towards creating an innovative solution to the challenge. Whether tasked to create a robot, vehicle or any other technical device, students will research and explore how technical objects are constructed, and then work together in teams to innovate their own technical designs. Teams will also explore their creative and artistic abilities by developing an original story, building props and sets, and theatrically presenting their team-created technical designs and story to an audience.

The Scientific Challenge is a creative-thinking springboard that blends the research and curiosity of science with the thrill and creativity of theater arts. Students research various subjects in science, as well as technical methods from fields including computer science, physics and mechanical engineering, to create a solution to the Challenge. Students showcase their creativity and artistic abilities by developing an original story, building props and sets, and presenting their solutions to an audience.

The Engineering Challenge allows students to take risks in the world of structural engineering and express their creativity through art and performance. Teams build weight-bearing structures—sometimes using only a designated set of materials such as balsa wood, playing cards and glue. In addition to designing, building and testing the structure, teams work together to write an original story, which includes the structure they created, as well as design props, costumes and set pieces.

As the world becomes more interconnected through technology and creativity, arts education is key to ensuring students’ success in school, careers, and beyond. The Fine Arts Challenge is an opportunity for students to flex their acting and artistic muscles. As they experiment with different types of artistic media and theater arts, teams write scripts, design and create innovative costumes, sets and props, and perform in a front of a live audience.

Improvisation helps students hone their research, communication and public speaking skills, while also stimulating fast thinking and engagement with ideas. The Improvisational Challenge is all about spontaneity and storytelling. For this Challenge, students work on elements of their solution for weeks, but they can’t be sure what must actually be included in their solutions until they are presenting at the tournament. Several elements they must include in their solution can include anything from; international landmarks to artwork which are randomly selected right before they perform in front of an audience. Teams learn to work together quickly and creatively to produce skits right on the spot.

The Project Outreach Service Learning Challenge at Destination Imagination empowers youth to make a positive impact on their communities. Students (kindergarten through university) form a team, select a community need and then work together to address that need. Not only do students have fun and learn through Project Outreach, they get to make a difference, locally and globally, while inspiring others to do the same.

Early learners (preschool—2nd grade) are naturally curious and can adapt well to learn new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) concepts. By appealing to their natural curiosity and creativity through a fun, hands-on learning environment. Our Rising Stars Challenge allows early learners to experience a range of invaluable concepts simply and effectively. Each year, volunteer educators and industry experts develop a new group of Rising Stars for the Early Learners Challenge. They focus on creating play-based curriculum that allow children to be creative, learn simple building and construction, become comfortable working in teams, and learn how to speak in front of an audience. The Challenge is noncompetitive, which helps ease pressure and lets children play and experiment with their solutions.

1 Adult Team Manager + 2 to 7 Team Members = Destination Imagination Team
The adult Team Manager must be 18 years of age or older.

• Rising Stars!: For preschool through 2nd Grade
• Elementary Level (EL): Kindergarten-5th Grade
• Middle Level (ML): 6th-8th Grade
• Secondary Level (SL): 9th-12th Grade
• College & University Level: Full-time, post-secondary students enrolled in college, university, trade, or technical school or military college-bound. High school seniors who are taking accredited courses offered by a college or university that will qualify for course credit when entering higher education.

Register through ShopDI.org, or Download the Start a Team Application at DestinationImagination.org, fill out and fax, mail or email it to us at AskDI@dihq.org. Visit DestinationImagination.org/TeamPricing for pricing information.
After purchasing the first Team Number, organizations can purchase additional Team Numbers at a discounted price.
*Depending on the state or country in which you reside, you may be required to pay additional Affiliate fees.

You can download the files online. After you review the materials, decide which challenge is the best fit for your team. Your challenge solution should take 6-12 weeks. Start by meeting for 1-2 hour sessions.

Most Regional and Affiliate Tournaments occur between February and April. If you qualify at the Affiliate level, you advance to Global Finals.