Destination Imagination allows 285 corridor teams to soar

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Some students along the 285 Corridor are using their imaginations in a big way.

ey are part of Destination e program known as DI allows teams worldwide from kindergarten through college to nd solutions to challenges in STEAM subjects — science, technology, engineering, art and math — by using the creative process, according to the DI website.

Imagination teams at Elk Creek Elementary and West Je erson Middle School — eight at Elk Creek and two at West Je — who spent the school year creating solutions to problems posed by the organization.

Elk Creek’s Warrior Eagles fthgrade team and Blue Eagles thirdgrade team attended the global competition in Kansas City, Missouri, competing against teams from around the country and the world. West Je Middle School’s two teams quali ed for the global competition but decided not to compete because both teams went to globals last year.

While the Warrior Eagles and Blue Eagles were trading pins at globals — similar to the Olympics tradition

2022-23 DESTINATION IMAGINATION TEAMS

From West Je erson Middle Mountain Eagles, eighth grade

Sky Eagles, sixth grade

From Elk Creek Elementary Warrior Eagles, fifth grade

Golden Eagles, fifth grade

Space Eagles, fourth grade

Blue Eagles, third grade

Creative Eagles, third grade

Imagination Eagle Power, second grade

Soaring Eagles, first grade

Shiny Musical Eagles, kindergarten

— DI coordinator Laurie Woulfe said the amount of work the DI teams put into nding solutions to challenges is phenomenal, and they do the work themselves.

“ ere’s a big thing in DI called interference,” Woulfe said. “You cannot give the kids any ideas nor can you help them create anything as part of their solutions. Kids have to come up with everything themselves. If they say, ‘We need to sew a costume, and we don’t know how,’ you can give a sewing lesson, but then they have to do it themselves.”

DI competitions include both long-term problems that the teams have been working on all school year as well as instant challenges that require quick thinking, Woulfe explained. Challenges are in several categories, and the teams with usually ve to seven members choose the category: ne arts, engineering, technology, service learning, scienti c and more. Challenges have a presentation component, so the teams write scripts and practice public speaking.

Teams of third graders and older solve the competition problems, while younger teams solve a noncompetitive problem.

Teams meet weekly with volunteer team managers, who spend an ex-