Challenge Me, Inc is a a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. We will provide an email acknowledging your donation.
Destination Imagination (DI) is an educational program that teaches skills like creative and critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork through different competitive, STEAM-based (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) challenges. We are excited to announce that this year, two of our local teams will be moving on to compete at Global Finals in Kansas City, Missouri! Global Finals is an international competition where teams from around the world gather to showcase their solutions, as well as to learn from and be inspired by each other.
Teams that attend Global Finals are responsible for their own fundraising to cover their costs (registration fee, travel, room and board, getting props transported, etc). It’s expensive to go, but these kids have been working hard all year and can’t wait to compete on a global stage. We would greatly appreciate anything you can contribute to support the teams as they travel to Kansas City in May!
Read on to learn about our two teams going to 2024 Global Finals: Protect Nature, and The Shifty-Shifty People!
Challenge Me, Inc is a a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. We will provide an email acknowledging your donation.
The Shifty-Shifty People
We are 7th and 8th graders from Andover, and have been doing DI for the past 7 years. The Technical Challenge this year had us create a large-scale Pinball System where the pinball was a soccer ball. For our solution, we created a 9-foot tall zipline where a mine cart carries the pinball and releases it onto a ramp. It then triggers a robot on a track that manipulates different hooks to turn the pages of a 3-foot tall journal. Finally, the ball rolls into a bucket attached to a lift that raises it 9 feet into the air before it drops into a plinko board we built, which splits off into one of two modules that represent the Past and the Future.
In addition, we created a skit about a time traveller who seeks a special gem to save his sick sister, but his future self tries to stop him at every turn. The story culminates with an epic rap battle and a final plot twist before our hero saves the day!
Protect Nature
We are a team of 5th graders from Andover, Massachusetts, and most of us have been participating in Destination Imagination since Kindergarten. This year, we took on the Service Learning challenge. We visited 5 different trails around our region to see which one had the most litter. We also made a survey to learn about people’s littering habits and to raise awareness of our cleanup project. We really enjoyed standing in front of Market Basket and asking people to fill out our survey! On a rainy day in December, we and our volunteers cleaned up the Field of Dreams playground, trails, park and parking lot, in Salem, New Hampshire.
Our challenge also required us to create a performance that told the story of our project as a fantasy tale. Our story is about a Trash Monster that is corrupting the World Tree with yucky trash orbs. The Map Maker sends a talking bear named Nate Churro on a quest to find and stop the Trash Monster. Along the way, Nate recruits volunteers who help clean up the orbs Field of Dreams, sending the Trash Monster into The Void (a dumpster) and saving the World Tree. Our world tree lights up with LEDs that we wired, and we also made a big map that shows the progress of the quest by raising and lowering panels using a pulley system that we created!
Challenge Me, Inc is a a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. We will provide an email acknowledging your donation.
Destination Imagination (DI) is an educational program that teaches skills like creative and critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork through different competitive, STEAM-based (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) challenges. We are excited to announce that this year, two of our local teams will be moving on to compete at Global Finals in Kansas City, Missouri! Global Finals is an international competition where teams from around the world gather to showcase their solutions, as well as to learn from and be inspired by each other.
Teams that attend Global Finals are responsible for their own fundraising to cover their costs (registration fee, travel, room and board, getting props transported, etc). It’s expensive to go, but these kids have been working hard all year and can’t wait to compete on a global stage. We would greatly appreciate anything you can contribute to support the teams as they travel to Kansas City in May!
Read on to learn about our two teams going to 2024 Global Finals: Protect Nature, and The Shifty-Shifty People!
Challenge Me, Inc is a a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. We will provide an email acknowledging your donation.
The Shifty-Shifty People
We are 7th and 8th graders from Andover, and have been doing DI for the past 7 years. The Technical Challenge this year had us create a large-scale Pinball System where the pinball was a soccer ball. For our solution, we created a 9-foot tall zipline where a mine cart carries the pinball and releases it onto a ramp. It then triggers a robot on a track that manipulates different hooks to turn the pages of a 3-foot tall journal. Finally, the ball rolls into a bucket attached to a lift that raises it 9 feet into the air before it drops into a plinko board we built, which splits off into one of two modules that represent the Past and the Future.
In addition, we created a skit about a time traveller who seeks a special gem to save his sick sister, but his future self tries to stop him at every turn. The story culminates with an epic rap battle and a final plot twist before our hero saves the day!
Challenge Me, Inc is a a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. We will provide an email acknowledging your donation.
Protect Nature
We are a team of 5th graders from Andover, Massachusetts, and most of us have been participating in Destination Imagination since Kindergarten. This year, we took on the Service Learning challenge. We visited 5 different trails around our region to see which one had the most litter. We also made a survey to learn about people’s littering habits and to raise awareness of our cleanup project. We really enjoyed standing in front of Market Basket and asking people to fill out our survey! On a rainy day in December, we and our volunteers cleaned up the Field of Dreams playground, trails, park and parking lot, in Salem, New Hampshire.
Our challenge also required us to create a performance that told the story of our project as a fantasy tale. Our story is about a Trash Monster that is corrupting the World Tree with yucky trash orbs. The Map Maker sends a talking bear named Nate Churro on a quest to find and stop the Trash Monster. Along the way, Nate recruits volunteers who help clean up the orbs Field of Dreams, sending the Trash Monster into The Void (a dumpster) and saving the World Tree. Our world tree lights up with LEDs that we wired, and we also made a big map that shows the progress of the quest by raising and lowering panels using a pulley system that we created!