Destination Imagination

2024-2025 Co-Chairs: Michelle Guo and Boyuan Li

Destination Imagination is a team-based program that encourages students to be creative, to think outside of the box, and to collaborate in a variety of unique challenges.

Please fill out this DI Parent Interest Form to let us know if you are interested and how you’d like to be involved.

DI Overview

DI is a team-based program. Each team has 3-7 students, plus one parent volunteer who acts as the Team Manager.

Teams can choose from seven challenge types: Technical, Scientific, Engineering, Fine Arts, Improvisational, Service Learning, and Early Learning (Rising Star, specific for Grade K-2).

Check out the 2024-2025 Challenge Previews: 2024-25 Challenge Previews

Want to learn more about Destination Imagination? Check out DI - Digital Open for 2023-2024 to learn more!

WHAT IS DI?

DI is a hands-on program where students work in teams to solve creative challenges in science, technology, engineering, arts, and more. Through this experience, students develop critical skills such as problem-solving, teamwork, and creativity, all while having fun and gaining confidence. DI fosters resilience, encourages innovative thinking, and teaches kids how to tackle real-world challenges.

Why DI?

Each year, more than 150,000 students across the world participate in the Destination Imagination Challenge Experience. Hear firsthand from parents about DI’s impact on their kids’ lives.

Source: www.destinationimagination.org

participate in DI: How to Start

Read the FAQ to understand student time commitments and parental involvement.
Form a team (3-7 students, 1 parent team manager)
- View or add your information to the DI Parent Interest Form to connect with parents of other interested students. For privacy, this sign-up is restricted to PTA members only.
- We will use the Interest sign-up to help connect potential team members with the team manager.
- Your child can ask classmates and buddies who might be good fits to establish a team
- For additional help, please email di@medinapta.org.
Register on the PTA website
- Interested in leading a team? Sign up to be a team manager.
- Interested in joining a team? Sign-up on general registration form
- The paid DI Team Kit will be provided to your team right after registration. It includes your Team Number, full challenge documents, Rules of the Road, and Instant Challenge Practice Set. This kit will give you additional information about how DI works and how you can help!
Start your first team meeting
- The Guide to Team Manager: Roadmap will be provided to each DI Team Manager.
Choose a Challenge Type
- Grades K-2: Early Learning
- Grades 3-5: Technical, Scientific, Engineering, Fine Arts, Improvisational, or Service Learning
- 2023-24 Challenge Previews and First Look PDF here: https://www.destinationimagination.org/challenge-experience/challenge-previews/

INFO NIGHT

DI Info Night is on Monday, September 9th, 2024, 6:30pm-7:30pm. The club chairs will share information about the club and answer any questions. Please join us! Both parents and students are welcome to attend!

Registration

Registration opens: Friday, September 20th, 2024 at 8:30am

Registration closes: Monday, September 30th, 2024 at 11:30pm

How to Register: Please complete the General Registration Form once you have formed your DI team with a team manager. Your registration is confirmed only after payment is received.

If you would like to become a team manager to lead a team, please contact the DI co-chairs at di@medinapta.org. Once you receive the confirmation from the DI co-chairs, please complete the Team Manager Registration Form

IMPORTANT: To register, you must agree to all DI policies on the registration form. Read the policies.

Fees: $500

Fees cover: team regional tournament registration fee, materials, instant challenge kit, club t-shirt, workshops, year-end party, and operating expenses.

Fees do not cover state and global tournaments and associated costs.

If you need financial assistance to pay the DI registration fee, please choose the "pay by check" option when checking out. Then, contact our counselor Ms. Geck (gecke@bsd405.org) to initiate the process.

Refund Policy: If a student withdraws from a team before the team meetings start, a 5% tuition processing fee applies to the refund. If a student requests a refund within the first month, half of the tuition fee may be refunded. There is no refund after the first month.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many hours are expected from a kid during an entire DI season?

Teams are encouraged to meet in-person once or twice per week starting in October. Each team meeting lasts about one or two hours. There may be additional offline, hands-on individual work time depending on the solution that a team comes up with.

Teams may increase meetings and/or individual work time as tournaments approach.

How can parents be involved? What are some of the different roles?

Team Manager
Volunteer to offer space
Volunteer Appraiser at the Regional or State Tournament
Support Volunteer at the Regional or State Tournament
Snack Parent
Instant Challenge Parent
Errand Parent

Support and resources for Team Managers

Medina DI will host monthly Team Manager meetings to support new TMs and boost the Medina DI community. In the meetings, we will have experienced DI Team Managers share:

good practice,
things you need to be aware of,
ways to unify the effort for tournament registration, and
materials for Instant Challenges.

WA DI resources for Team Managers can be found here: https://www.wa-di.org/team-managers.html

Policies

Updated: September 11, 2024

ELIGIBILITY: Our afterschool programs /clubs (including Destination Imagination) are ONLY for CURRENT-ENROLLED Medina students with ACTIVE Medina PTA membership. Your child must be enrolled with Medina Elementary school at the time they are attending the Destination Imagination and you must have a valid Medina PTA family or individual membership for the 2024-2025 school year. You agree that if your kid is not currently enrolled with Medina Elementary school OR you do not purchase PTA membership, your child will be withdrawn from Destination Imagination with no refund.

FEES: For a student to participate in any after-school club, there cannot be an outstanding balance on the family's PTA's account. Tuition and all outstanding fees must be paid in full by October 7th, 2024. If you do not pay all fees by this deadline, your child will be withdrawn from Destination Imagination and a 5% tuition processing fee will be added to your account.

To remain enrolled in Destination Imagination, families must timely pay any Medina PTA fees (not just club fees) incurred during the course of the school year. You understand that failure to pay fees on time may result in your student being withdrawn from the club with no refund.

PROCESSING FEE: Any student registration for an afterschool club that you cancel will incur a 5% processing fee. This includes cancelling a duplicate registration (e.g., when the parents sign up the same child twice for the same club) or cancelling one registration to sign up for a different Medina PTA club on the same day. The 5% fee applies for all transaction types (credit card, cash, or check).

REFUNDS: If a student withdraws from a team before the team meetings start, a 5% tuition processing fee applies to the refund. If a student requests a refund within the first month, half of the tuition fee may be refunded. There is no refund after the first month.

BEHAVIOR:

Intentional violent behavior directed at another individual during the club (including another student, teacher, coach/instructor, parent, or volunteer) and resulting in physical harm is grounds for immediate removal from that club without refund. Medina PTA retains the discretion to remove this student from all other enrolled afterschool clubs/programs and prevent this student from registering for future afterschool programs in the same school year.

Parents and students are expected to behave respectfully to each other and the coaches/instructors:

If the club chair determines that a student’s behavior is disruptive during the program/club, or the student is consistently disrespectful, a warning will be issued to the student and parent. After the warning, a second offense will result in removal of the student from the club with no refund, unless the club chair decides to issue a second warning. The chair my also require the parent to provide full-time adult supervision of the student for the duration of the club. The adult supervisor must be a PTA member and have a BSD background check. A third offense will result in removal of the student from the club program with no refund.
If the club chair determines that a parent’s behavior is disruptive or consistently disrespectful, a warning will be issued to the parent. After the warning, a second offense will result in removal of that parent’s child from afterschool clubs with no refund.
At the discretion of Medina PTA, any withdrawal due to disruptive or disrespectful behavior may also affect the family’s ability to register for future afterschool programs.

Past Years

We are the only PTA in the Bellevue School District offering a DI program. Over the past few years, Medina DI teams have achieved exceptional results in WA DI. We've had 30-50 families participate in DI every year, and quite a few teams have won Regional & State Championships across all of the challenge types, qualifying them to compete in DI Global Finales.

2023-2024

Congratulations to Medina PTA's 8 DI teams who successfully completed the Washington DI Western Regional Tournament. This year, 5 teams participated in challenges that are eligible to advance to the Affiliate Tournament and 3 teams participated in Rising Star challenges. Medina DI teams won the 1st, 3rd, and 5th places across different challenge categories. We look forward to hearing from the teams moving on to the affiliate tournament in two weeks.

Thanks to all team managers for their hard work: Boyuan Li, Christine Zhe, Lien Ngu, Helena Chen, Rebecca Wen, Jia Liu, Kexin Xu, Neeti Jain, and Li-Tan Hsu. Many thanks go to our workshop hosts to help the team members learn performing, script writing, construction, costume making, and practice runs on instant challenge and mock tournament: Andrew Jones, Lori Renner, Kyleigh Archer, Lynn Trinh, Aiden T, Alice Z, Iris Z, and Leslie Andrews. Thank you to Mr. Jones, Ms. Haseeba, Ms. Shafiqa, and Ms. McGough for serving as staff coaches for guiding our teams!

2022-2023

Four Medina DI teams were formed, tackled 2 challenge types and won the Top 1 Regional & State Tournament and Top 10 Global Finals 2023.

Congratulations to all the teams.

A big thank you to all DI team managers: Li-Tan Hsu, Lori Renner, Melissa Lloyd, Wei Cui. We couldn't have had a successful year without you! We appreciate your efforts, passion and dedication.

2021-2022

This year, DI was back to in-person! Five Medina DI teams were formed, covered 4 challenge types, and participated in State Tournaments in March 2022. Two Medina DI teams advanced to Global Finals in Kansas City, MO on May 20-25. The Flaming Eiffel Team won first place in the 2022 Global Finals Service Learning Challenge. Congratulations to Joey, Angelina, Erik and Rachel. It’s the best record in Medina/WA history! The Fab 4 Team won seventh place in the Global Finals Engineering Challenge. Congratulations to Francesca, Justin, Yiheng and Ashleen. It’s out of the World!

2020-2021

During this special year, five Medina DI teams were formed and continued to participate in Regional and State DI Tournaments, which demonstrated strong perseverance and flexibility. In the March to May Regional and State Tournaments, Medina DI teams won two Championships in the State Level - Technical Challenge and Engineering Challenge. Four teams made to the Top 3 in WA State and qualified for Global Finals 2021 representing WA State.

On July 2021 Global Finals, the four Medina DI teams continued to compete in a larger platform with hundreds of top global teams. Facing brand new Fast Flex challenges, each DI team made their best efforts. In the Global Finals Aware Ceremony, the name of Medina Elementary School were called out multiple times. Medina DI teams have been recognized as one of top DI achievers in the national level. Flaming Eiffel (4rd Graders) won Technical Challenge Champion, and the team was nominated as the only USA team to win Renaissance Award in the challenge level. Covid Defeaters (3^rd graders) and Fab 5 (3^rd Graders) made to Top 10 in Engineering Challenge.

Quote of Global Finals 2021 Special Awards, to Medina DI Flaming Eiffel Team, the only USA team nominated for Renaissance Award in Technical Challenge Elementary Level –

“This team has ‘WOWED’ the Appraisers by creating a truly immersive experience within their Video Game. With creative handmade electronic 3-D backdrops, the Appraisers were transported to an Egyptian pyramid. Camera angles and nearly cinema-quality green screen techniques created an experience that integrated the real world and the digital world. Within their quest, the team built and coded a wooden walking robot through many attempts. Each of their Quest Items was also a technical design achievement. When it came time to defeat their final boss, their Quest Item rewards were integrated into a fascinating trap that the Appraisers wished they could see in person. This team's well-integrated and creative solution really took their Video Game to the NEXT LEVEL!”

Technical Challenge: Flaming Eiffel Team won Global Finals 2021 1st Place from hundreds of worldwide top teams. Wow! The team’s creative solution was granted Renaissance Award, which was the first Award Winner from WA State history. In the earlier Regional and State tournaments, the team won the State Champion, State DaVinci Award and made it to Global Finals 2021. Congratulations to 4th graders Joey, Erik, Angelina and Audrey. The State DaVinci Award is offered for exceptional creativity, a unique approach to the problem, or risk-taking. The Global Final Renaissance Award is offered for exceptional skill in the areas of engineering, design, or performance.
Engineering Challenge: Covid Defeaters Team won Global Final 3rd Place. In the earlier Regional and State tournaments, this team won State 3rd Place and continued improving their solution. Congratulations to 3rd graders Elena, Derrick, Hanjun, Lily, and Helen.
Engineering Challenge: Fab 5 Team won Global Final 5th Place. In the earlier Regional and State tournaments, this team won State 1st Place and made it to Global Finals 2021. Congratulations to Francesca, Ashleen, Yiheng, Justin and Lily.
Improvisation Challenge: In the Regional and State tournaments, the Imposters Team won State 3rd Place and made it to Global Finals 2021. Congratulations to 4th graders Yabin, Eason, Linus, Boyu, and Ethan.

2019-2020

The 2019-2020 season of Destination Imagination (DI) was wrapped up in the Virtual Closing Celebration of Global Finals 2020 held on July 16-17, 2020 (https://www.globalfinals.org/). The Medina DI team achieved historic highs in DI Global Finals 2020 and created a new best record.

The Flaming Eiffel Team won 2nd place in Global Finals 2020 virtual Central Team Challenge, among 2,200 submissions from 16 countries. Their total score was 183.72, and they were the only Washington state team that made it into the Top 10 at the Elementary Level. The Flaming Eiffel team also won 4th place in the virtual Instant Challenge 3.
The Electro Einstein team won 19th place in the split site of virtual Instant Challenge 3.

For the 2019-2020 season, Medina had nine strong DI teams prepared with creative solutions for the tournaments in March. As with all other programs, the in-person tournaments in March were cancelled due to Covid-19.

2018-2019

Medina teams won 50% of the DI categories in the WA State Tournament, and made it to Global Finales representing WA state in May, 2019.

Technical Challenge: Aero Einstein Team (4th grade) State 1st place, made to Global Finales 2019.
Improvisation Challenge: Imaginators Team (5th grade) State 1st place, made to Global Finales 2019.
Engineering Challenge: Pisa Party Team (5th grade) State 1st place, made to Global Finales 2019.
Engineering Challenge: Out of the Box Team (5th grade) Regional 3rd place.
Service Learning: The A-mazing Team (4th grade) Regional 2nd place.

For the 2018-2019 season, Medina had 10 total DI teams participating in almost all the challenge categories.

Questions? Email di@medinapta.org