DestinationImagiNationâ

CreativityNews

All About Side Trips Issue

Visit our Website at: http://nydi.org

October 2000

What’s a Side Trip?

The Basics

Let’s start with the basics! A Side Trip is an extra excursion that adds to the enjoyment, excitement, understanding, and “wow” factor of the Team Challenge. Think about being on vacation and driving down to Florida… it’s a long trip! Although it may be the most efficient use of time and fuel, the route is pretty boring if you stay on the interstate highway system. So on this trip you get off the highway every now and then and drive through the countryside, maybe stopping to sample local cuisine, or check out a fair, or even see the world’s biggest ball of string! At the end of your journey these are the things that will stand out in your mind, not the long boring hours of highway driving. These side trips make your trip interesting and unique. In Destination ImagiNationâ Side Trips will make your Team Challenge unique, entertaining and interesting as well!

What does the Rules of the Road

say about Side Trips?

On page 8 of the Rules of the Road (which you should download from the International Website at:

http://www.destinationimagination.org if you have not already done so) says:

The Destination ImagiNationä Side Tripsare three additional creations that showcase the team’s “Specialties” – the team members’ interests, talents, strengths, and/or skills – for the Appraisers.

Specialties are defined as the collective skills, talents, strengths and interests of the group. Each Side Trip must be a separate object, performance, or item that can be evaluated by itself and is not scored in any other part of the Central Challenge. Each Side Trip must showcase a different area of Specialty. In other words, the three Side Trips should spotlight three different Specialties.

There are eight areas of Specialty that teams can choose from for its Side Trips. A full listing of the Specialties is included in each of the Team Challenges. The team will choose THREE of these areas and create a way to show off those Specialties for the Appraisers.

Each Side Trip is worth 25 points. Points are subjective and will be awarded in two areas: the creativity and originality of the Side Trip. (1-15 points), and the quality and workmanship that is evident (1-10 points). The Side Trip that receives the highest score will automatically be doubled by the Number Cruncher, for a total possible score of 100 points. Due to the subjective nature of the scoring, Side Trip scores cannot be appealed.

OK…. So what’s a Specialty?

One interesting web source for info that may help us all 'map' a side trip includes Surfaquarium. This site is primarily a collection of education resources including a very interesting web page titled 'I think .... therfore .... M.I.! Internet links exercising your Multiple Intelligences (M.I.)”. And what might those Multiple Inelligences be your asking yourself, well they include: Verbal/Linguistic, Mathematical/Logical, Visual/Spatial, Musical/Rhythmical, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Naturalist, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. And those 'Side Trips' specialties are called what? Hummmmm. While your there checking out the M.I info, take the quick hop to Project Zero and read it's mission statement!

Don't stop here, another M.I. site worth a look is "New Dimensions of Learning, Exploring Multiple Intelligences". URLs for these sites:

Surfaquarium http://www.surfaquarium.com/index.htm

I think therefore M.I. http://www.surfaquarium.com/im.htm

New Dimensions in Learning http://www.multi-intell.com/

How do I know what my teams Specialties are?

If you have not already downloaded the Team Managers Guide from the International Website…. Do it today! There is a ton of VERY useful and interesting information in this guide that will help EVERY team manager on this journey!

Section 6 of the Guide is dedicated to helping TMs understand Side Trips and includes a useful tool that can be used by TMs and teams to help team members do a self-evaluation to determine where each members strengths and interests lie. Use it… you won’t be sorry!

Can we really pick ANYTHING we want?

Yes, you can REALLY pick any specialty to include in your Team Challenge performance that demonstrates and showcases your three specialties! You have a great tumbler on your team – find a way to use tumbling as a Physical Movement Side Trip. You have a gifted musician? Maybe a Musical Side Trip is just thing to give some extra power to your presentation! Just about any special strength you can name will fall into one of the eight categories of Specialties! Have FUN!!! Show Off!!! The sky is the limit!

These are the rules about Side Trips:

1. Teams must showcase three DIFFERENT Specialties.

2. A Side Trip cannot be an item required in the Central Challenge.

3. A Side Trip cannot be part of an item that is already being scored.

4. More than one side trip CAN be demonstrated at the same time (example: A team-created song and dance can be scored for both the song and the dance as long as the Appraisers can identify each.

5. Each Side Trip must be a single, stand alone item which can be appraised on it’s own merits.

What are the 8 Categories of Specialties?

Each of the Challenges has a full section describing the eight Specialties, also included are some ideas of how each Specialty can be used to showcase your strengths! Read this section of your Challenge carefully, and think about the things your team does well…. All of your strengths will ‘fit’ somewhere!

Team Manager Training Workshops!

Who should attend?

Anyone who is going to work with a team ideally should attend a workshop. The primary TM for each team should try to attend as many workshops as possible.