Location: St Mary’s Academy – Middle School Building
Address: 4545 S University Blvd
Englewood, CO 80110 (Map)
Date: February 11, 2012

• Parking: There is a large parking lot on the North side of the property. Parking around the back will give you easy access to the Middle School building.
• Please DO NOT show up any more than 15 minutes before your scheduled First Challenge time. There is no place for teams to wait indoors without disrupting the teams who are working. You will have to wait outside until we begin the check-in process. EVEN IF THE WEATHER IS COLD!
• No more than two (2) adults may attend with your team. We have found bringing parents, siblings, babies etc hinders the teams learning experience. Only the team and 2 adults will be allowed into the building, all others must wait outside.
• Because this is a learning opportunity we suggest you video the team as they go through the four challenges.  It’s difficult to remember everything the appraisers say to the team. This also gives you the opportunity show parents what Instant Challenge looks like.
• The appraiser representing your team will receive a separate email with instructions, times etc.
• If your Check-In Time is 9:30 – First Challenge begins at 9:45  – Finish at 10:45
• If your Check-In Time is 11:00 – First Challenge begins at 11:15  – Finish at 12:15
• If your Check-In Time is 1:00 – First Challenge begins at 1:15 – Finish at 2:15
• You can download a copy of the schedule here: IC DAY 2012Final

Appraiser Information:

As part of the registration process for IC Day each team must provide an appraiser for the day. We CANNOT provide adequate training without this appraiser support. We very much appreciate your time being donated to South Metro!

Instant Challenge training will begin at 8:00 am in the Middle School Building located next to the gym on the St. Mary’s Academy Campus.

We will do a general Instant Challenge Training and then break  into your core group to review the challenge you’ll be doing with the teams. We’ve tried to schedule everyone to be able to work with the team that you are representing. Teams begin checking-in at 9:30 am and challenges begin at 9:45. There will be two morning sessions, then we break for lunch, followed by one afternoon session. Coffee/tea and donuts will be available in the morning. Lunch will be provided as will water. If you’d like something else to drink feel free to bring it with you. Below is your room assignment and the Core you’ll be working in:

This may include but is not limited to having designated duties for different team members – timekeeper, summary person, questioner, reader, etc. With a young team, try to come up with different “roles” or jobs for each to have responsibility during the Instant Challenge. Please don’t assign these roles, but to describe them and discuss with the group who they think would be good at this role or like to try it? If more than one person, you can have TWO in a category – can’t hurt. If nobody volunteers, have them draw “roles” from slips of paper for a few times and see if they find an area they are comfortable. Or if they’ve chosen roles and it doesn’t seem to mesh, that’s the time to insist everyone try a new role.

Possible Roles and Responsibilities:

1. The Rule Person – This person reads the Instant Challenge and throughout the working time is the person who refers back to the written challenge to be sure they are solving as directed and following rules. Many an Instant Challenges has run aground when a team has an amusing presentation, but talks in a nonverbal, or touches the tape that can’t be touched, or changes the item that “can’t be changed.” The rule person keeps the focus on what is allowed.
2. The Points Person – This person makes sure the team is getting the most points possible. Example: If the challenge said 10 points for a skit and 50 points for each creative costume, the rule person would remind the team that costumes were important, point-wise. Especially if they got stuck writing a skit and forgot to dress up! –Yes, rule person and points person might seem redundant, but you WANT two kids checking the rules and paper and points throughout, so there are two slightly different roles that overlap.
3. The Timekeeper – This role can take two forms. One – The designated Timekeeper’s role is to continually ask the appraiser how much time is left in the challenge. This is generally used with younger teams where watches are harder to use. Two – This person must have a watch and must get used to checking it and telling the team when they are half-way through, or have a minute left, whatever is appropriate. You can always have two Timekeepers, each one tracking the time both ways.  REMEMBER: If you are using your own watch/device it will ALWAYS be the Appraisers timer that is the official time. Make sure there are no bells, ringers, alarms etc. armed on the device the team is using. This needs to be a verbal countdown by the team member.
   
4. The Laughmeters – Often more than one person volunteers for this, but this is a job to be sure that the skit or whatever is funny (assuming it is supposed to be funny) and suggests quirky actions, character voices, funny lines and whatever else tickles their fancy. While we tell Appraisers that “kid humor” is different than “adult humor” it’s best to remind team members that if your grandma wouldn’t find it funny…. most likely the Appraisers won’t either.
5. The Brainstorm Facilitator – This is the moderator of the group, who makes sure that everybody is participating and encourages the less-outgoing kids to speak up, and asks the babbling kids to “hold that thought” while another idea is heard. This person makes sure that there is some order to the teamwork and participation; if several people want to talk, this person identifies people in turn to speak, so that everyone gets a turn. This team member is a future diplomat!
6. The “What If?” Person – If you don’t use up all your kids with jobs above doubling up, add a “what if?” person. This person listens to the first two ideas and then says “what if…” and adds on or changes one of the ideas. Even if they don’t do this in a meet, this is great practice for thinking outside the box. There can be more than one “what if?” person. Example: Someone says the skit can be animals in a zoo. The “what if?” person says, “or what if it can be animals on a farm?” or “what if?” person says “what if it was an ANT farm?” and so on…..

Hearing:

Another factor to keep in mind is that in Instant Challenge the Appraisers must be able to hear a team’s brainstorming in order to accurately score them on team work. Remind your team not to whisper when they are brainstorming. This is not the time to pretend you’re in the library. Practice Idea: Have one of the team members try sitting away from the team while they brainstorm. Afterwards, discuss as a team if the team member sitting out could hear everything.

Time:

It’s hard for even adults to know how long 2 minutes is or how much they might get done in that length of time. Practice Idea: Using a stopwatch have the team sit in a circle, ask them to raise their hand when they think two minutes is up. Don’t call out time until everyone has raised their hand. Is it longer than you think or shorter? What about 5 minutes? Use a practice Instant Challenge and talk through what can the team can do while the clock is running.

This will be a fun filled and educational evening for everyone…. bring the family, bring your team from 7:00 – 9:00 pm!

Can’t make it to the Tattered Cover that night? Purchase your copy of Jump! here and Bob will make a donation to Destination ImagiNation Colorado.

Challenge: Your TASK is to build a free-standing tower that is as tall as possible made only of straws.

Time: You will have up to 2 minutes to discuss strategy and up to 5 minutes to build your tower.

Set-up: On the floor in the center of the room is a 12 inch x 12 inch taped square within which you must build your tower.  The tower must be freestanding.

Materials: 30 Straws and 1 Toe-nail Clipper
(The toe-nail clippers may NOT be part of the tower)

Scoring:
Your team will receive up to:
A.  2 points (60 points maximum) for each inch of tower
B.  Up to 20 points for how creative use of materials
C.  Up to 20 points for how well your team works together

Teamwork * Creative Problem Solving * Presentation Skills * Properties of Materials

If you’ve taken our Instant Challenge workshop before, you learned what kinds of Instant Challenges to expect.  Now get ready to learn how to teach your team the skills they need to solve any DI challenge they encounter!  This hands-on class includes strategies and exercises as well as new challenges for practice and insight to new IC competition trends.  If you think you’ve done this one before, think again!

Date: Saturday, December 4, 2010

Time: 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Where: Englewood High School Lunchroom, 3800 S. Logan

Cost: $20 per team manager (no team members at this training)

Information: Phone: 720-394-8597

Email: kris@extremecreativity.org

All participants must register in advance. To register download the PDF: IC Success Training Flyer Dec 4 2010

Send check made payable to Destination ImagiNation Colorado along with registration information to:

Destination ImagiNation Colorado

9249 S. Broadway Blvd., Unit 200-345

Highlands Ranch, CO 80129

• Your main character is a singing cat, the place is a Chinese restaurant, the goal is to jump over the moon, the obstacle is there is a hungry lion, and your prop is a library book.
• Your main character is a tiny fish, the place is a garage, the goal is to find new shoes, the obstacle is a mountain you need to climb, and your prop is a unicycle.
• Your main character is the sun, the place is a kitchen, the goal is to make more money, the obstacle is you’re lost, and your prop is a computer.
• Your main character is a sad chef, the place is a ice skating rink, the goal is to put out a fire, the obstacle is no one believes what you tell them, and your prop is a lamp that won’t light.
• Your main character is a very large tomato, the place is inside a row boat, the goal is to sing in an musical play, the obstacle is you can’t find the way out, your prop is a coffee cup.
• Your main character is a talk show host, the place is a wedding, the goal is to reach the finish line first, the obstacle is your feet fell asleep, and your prop is a rake.

Challenge: Your team is to design three unique ways to wrap a birthday gift.

The Scene: Three of your friends are having birthdays. You are giving them the same gift but need to wrap them three different ways so you can tell them apart. Each of your friends has different personalities so your challenge is to design the wrapping to match the person receiving the gift.

Time: Your team will have 4 minutes to design and wrap the three gifts and 2 minutes to present the wrapped gifts and describe the personality of the person receiving the gift.

Materials: Scissors and colored markers (not to be used in the presentation)  3 milk cartons to be wrapped as the gifts, 1 brown paper grocery bag, 5 large rubber bands, 10 mailing labels, 1 yard of string, 3 sheets of colored 8×10 paper, 5 pieces of lasagna noodles, 1/2 yard fabric, 6 – 12 inch sheets of foil, 4 toilet paper tubes, 10 chenille stems (pipe cleaners) and 3 envelopes.

Scoring: (100 possible)

• up to 10 points each for the creativity of the three wrapped gift (30 points possible)
• up to 10 points each for the how well each gift match the personality of the person receiving the gift. (30 points possible)
• 0 to 20 point for the effectiveness of your presentation to the appraisers.
• 0 to 20 points for positive teamwork.

Team Debrief

The Gifts:

• How creatively wrapped were your gifts?
• What else could you have added? Subtracted? Done differently?
• What were the personalities of the people you were giving the gifts to?
• Did your gifts match these personalities?
• What could you have done differently?

Time:

• Did you complete the first part of the challenge within the 4 minutes? If no – why not? What could you do different?
• Did you complete the second part of the challenge within the 2 minutes? If no – why not? What could you do different?
• Did anyone ask now much time was left to work?

Teamwork:

• Did your team work well together?
• Was every team members ideas listened to?
• Did every team member participate in the challenge?

The Points:

• Did your team read over the scoring section of the challenge?
• Where were the most point available?
• Where could you have picked up more points?

The Scene: Your team has been hired by a crazy movie producer to create three different story lines for an up coming movie. The producer feels the prop you’ve been given is his lucky charm and must be a part of each story. Somehow your team must find a way to add this prop into each story in a different way. Hopefully, the crazy movie producer will love one of your story lines and hire you to write his next box office hit!

Time: You will have 5 minutes to use your ImagiNation to create the three different stories and 4 minutes to present the three stories to the Appraisers.

Materials:

• one object (choice of the team manager)
• paper and pencil for story planning

Scoring: (100 points possible)

1. Up to 10 points for the creativity of each story  (30 points maximum)
2. Up to 10 points for creative use of the prop in each story  (30 points maximum)
3. Up to 20 points for the creativity of your performance
4. Up to 20 points for how well your team works together

Debriefing the Challenge: (for the team manger to use with the teams after their performance)

Time:

• Did your team use the time wisely?
• Did you finish everything you wanted to present?
• What could have been a better use of your time?

The Story:

• Did each of your 3 stories have a beginning, middle and an end?
• How creative were your stories?
• How could they have been more creative?

Acting:

• How creative was your acting?
• Did your story have characters?
• How did you portray your characters?
• If the answer is “no” why not?

The Prop:

• Was your prop used creatively?
• Did you use it three different ways?
• How could you have used it differently?

Teamwork:

• Did your team work well together?
• Was every team members ideas listened to?
• Did every team member participate in the challenge?

The Points:

• Did your read over the scoring section of the challenge?
• Where were the most point available?
• Where could you have picked up more points?

After the team has had an opportunity to debrief the challenge have them do it again. This time have them use the same stories/prop and the ideas they came up with during the debrief. Do the challenge again using a new prop and all new stories. Debrief again after each time the team does the challenge.

What NOT to do during a brainstorming session.

and what to do during a brainstorming session

IN SUMMARY:

- Defer judgment
- Capture all the ideas
- Encourage wild ideas
- One conversation at a time
- Build on other people’s ideas
- Be visual – use words and pictures
- Use headlines to summarize ideas
- Go for volume – the more ideas the better!

Basic Materials are:

• Mailing Labels
• Chenille Sticks  (aka Pipe Cleaners)
• Straws  (if you can find the non-bendable straws that work better)
• Rubber Bands
• String
• Paper Clips (small and large)
• Plain White Paper
• Pencils
• Craft Sticks
• Styrofoam Cups
• Foil (Pre-cut sheets make it easy)
• Index Cards
• Timer (for Appraiser)
• Painter’s Tape (for boundaries)
• Coffee Stir Sticks
• Colored Markers
• Spaghetti Noodles
• Scissors
• Toothpicks
• Envelopes

Remember: Not all the materials will be used during a challenge. Ask your team members to recycle any unused or undamaged items back into your IC Materials Kit for future use.