NJDI 2011 Affiliate Finals Tournament Results

Destination ImagiNation congratulates all the students who participated in the Robbinsville High School tournament. We think you are all winners!

Teams emphasized as such and marked with a "G" are invited to participate in the 2011 DI Global Finals Tournament in Knoxville, TN.

Winners

It says above that you are all winners. I’m sure some of you will look at the standings and say, “Yeah, right! With all the teams that finished ahead of mine, how am I a winner?”. Here’s how.

First, you competed. You took a risk to put it all on the line and show your solution to the world. That means that you finished ahead of everyone who didn’t. I’m sorry that I can’t list all the people who finished below you, but there are just too many and I ran out of space on the web page.

Second, you learned. Whether it was how to join two pieces of wood together, how to paint a backdrop, how to write a script or whatever other skill you needed to complete your solution, I can guarantee you learned something. It may have only been a better way to do something you had done before, but now you know it and you can use that again.

Third, you did it yourself. There may have been an adult who wanted to take it and do it themselves, but you told them that in DI the team has to do everything. Now I know that the adults sometimes don’t get this part and want to try to do it for you so that it will be “better”. You have to keep reminding them. You know that you can do it if they just show you how. I know this too.

Above all else you had fun. Maybe you met a new friend. Maybe you only got to be better friends with kids you already knew, because you solved the challenges together.

So now you’re asking, “If I won, what is the prize? Aren’t there prizes for winning?”. The answer is yes, there are prizes. You get to keep what you learned.  You get to keep your new friends. If you ask nicely, you may even be allowed to keep one special thing that you created for your solution. You get to keep your memories of the fun you had.

Now I have a new challenge for you. You need to learn one more thing. In the scores that you got at the tournament, there is information that you can use. You need to look for it. Find the things that you did well and do more of them in your next solution. Find the things that didn’t go so well, and learn what you need to get better. This is something that you will need to do forever. We all do, even me.