Teacher Diana Warren's odd instruction stops no one in his tracks. The three brains continue to swing from fishing line issued from a coil duct-taped to a pool cue until Jeremiah Massengill reels them in. Teacher Diana Warren reacts to a moment in a skit by one of the William B. Travis Middle School Destination ImagiNation teams. Amarillo and Caprock high schools and James W. Fannin Middle School also will send teams, as will Sleepy Hollow Elementary School, which has fielded three teams for the match, said DI program facilitator Debbie Needham, also a learning facilitator for Gifted and Talented curriculum. Destination ImagiNation, a nonprofit corporation, calls for creative, problem-solving competition between teams of students, ranging from kindergarten through college, Needham said.
Teams compete in either of two components.
In the Instant Challenges division, teams do preliminary research on specified subjects. Then, on contest day, the teams must devise and perform an improvisational skit based on a topic they are handed, Needham said. In the Team Challenges area, teams rehearse ahead of time to cover specified elements in timed segments for judges, she said. Not all of the challenges are skit performances. One requires a team to construct something using supplied materials.