Destination Imagination, Inc., the world’s largest creativity and problem solving organization, inspires participants in all of its programs to learn the process, art, and skill associated with problem solving. The program has been run at Orchard Park Middle School since 2000.

You've heard of spelling bees, quiz bowls, robotics competitions and science fairs. In fact, there is probably a special event for every subject taught at school. Well, Destination Imagination is none of those things – and all of those things! Destination Imagination is a place where kids take what they know and what they are good at and learn to apply it to solve challenges, working together and cooperatively with a team and pushing the limits of imagination to best not their competition, but themselves. 

Destination Imagination is a community-based, school-friendly program that builds participants' creativity, problem solving, and teamwork in enjoyable and meaningful ways. Teams of between five and seven members work together to apply creativity, critical thinking and their particular talents to solve both a Team Challenge and an Instant Challenge. 

The Destination Imagination Team Challenge is a Challenge that is solved over a period of many weeks. There are five competitive Team Challenges from which teams may choose, each with its own educational focus. Each Team Challenge is designed to be open-ended and solvable in many ways and on many levels.

The Instant Challenge is a Challenge teams are asked to solve in a very short period of time at their Tournament, without knowing ahead of time what the Challenge will be. Teams go into a room and are given a Challenge and the materials with which to solve it. They use their thinking-on-their-feet skills to produce a solution, usually in a period of five to eight minutes! 

With the guidance – but not help – of a Team Manager (who serves as facilitator, not coach), the team creates an action plan and works together to create everything needed for their Presentation. The program has strict rules about parental interference, and requires that all parts of the solution be student generated. This forces students to learn skills including teamwork, creativity, problem solving, and time management. These are the skills which are necessary both in the program, and in everyday life.

The program culminates in a regional competition which is held in on a Saturday in March at an area school.  If the team advances to the state competition, this will be held on a Saturday in March or April.  The state competition is typically held in the Binghamton area.

The team also has the opportunity to advance to a Global Finals competition, which takes place in May in Kansas City, MO. With this in mind, participants may need to fundraise in order to offset the costs of the trip.

For more Information visit: https://www.destinationimagination.org/