The Tool called Categories or Environments can be used to create unique situation or examples by placing an object within a setting, a subject matter, or environment. Below is an activity using subject matter and following it is an example using an environment to generate ideas.

However, you are going to give them a little help. Tell them, you are going to put the straw in a "Category" - Sports (a subject matter). Now ask them to name uses for the straw. Give them a hint to get them started, e.g. hold the straw like a baseball bat, or a javelin.

You will find the group can usually come up with 40-60 answers within one minute.

Now you can tell them that Tony Buzan, a leader in Creativity, in his tape, Instant Creativity stated:

And, they listed 40-60 in one minute. THIS IS THE POWER OF THIS TOOL. Yes, they did it as a group. However, if they had to go back and do another "Category, they would have at least 10-12 each.

Tell them their new Challenge is to alternately name things that are loud and things that are soft.

If the group would chose a "Category" or an "Environment" to place their "louds" and "softs" in, they would come up with much more creative answers. Example - Place the Challenge into the "Environment" of a Zoo.

What this CPS Tool, Categories or Environments, does is to take the Challenge out of the BBH - The Big Black Hole, and place it into a smaller defined space. That way the mind can then visualize shapes and stories, etc.

This is one of the most powerful tools when searching for a way to "display" your answers - within a framework.

These easy (and fun) exercises can help you get your team moving in the right direction!

Successful teams always know what they are working towards, and have a plan about how to get there. Team members talk about progress and acknowledge each other’s achievements. Achieving consensus is the first step toward any team goal. This positive team approach will support resolution of any difficulties that arise during the year.

Have a meeting with ALL the team members and have them write the "rules for the team." Everybody should brainstorm ideas for how to treat each other.

If the team is in disagreement, a simple vote does not necessarily count. Every team member has to say they can “live with” the decision. So each person has veto power to some extent. Each team member has a feeling of control over the situation if things get out of hand. This would have to be modified if you had one team member that insisted everything be his or her way or they couldn’t live with it.

Write all these rules up on a poster board and have the whole team sign it, like a contract.

Then, team managers and team members should GENTLY point out when somebody doesn't follow a rule.

-You can even add rules as you go along, provided everybody on the team agrees to add something.

-Try and close each meeting with a positive feedback time - at the beginning of each session we draw names from a hat - and whichever name you draw for that session you have to observe that person - then at Positive Feedback time each person has to provide a positive comment about AND a quote from the person they observed - increases the chances that they are listening to each other and validates at least one contribution from each team member.

From another TM -- With a couple of kids, it takes a little more encouraging comments or some one on one questioning like "how is the team behaving when you are over here with me?" And "are you respecting the team rules - that your team wrote at the beginning of DI?" I find I don't have to do much, because the team will help the kid - "hey, you're speaking when I'm speaking, that's against our rules."

This year, the teams created a "punishment" when a member broke one of the rules. At the first meeting, they wrote rules like "respect everyone", "don't talk when others are talking, "listen to everyone's ideas." When a team member breaks one of these rules, the other team members can demand 5 Hawaiian pushups. (A Hawaiian pushup is one pushup regular, then flip over and one backwards.) The kid that broke the rule immediately recognizes he broke the rule and the team laughs together as the pushups are done. It is a FUN way to address the kid that is not supporting the team.

10. Read and re-read the Rules of the Road and the Team Manager's Guide. Read and re-read the specific Central Challenge which your team picks. Have the team read it and re-read until you are sure they understand it.

9. Make sure everyone understands Interference rules. You, the team, and their parents.

8. Have a discussion about expectations. Let the team set their own goals for the season. If you start pushing a team beyond their desire to excel, things will go sour pretty darn quick. Let them discuss and set some team rules. Make sure they understand your expectations such as how they will behave in your house and how often they can miss team meetings.

7. Remember that you don't have to solve the challenge for the team. That's their job. Understanding this can be a big relief for a new manager.

6. In the early stages, concentrate on building the team rather than solving the challenge. Do a lot of improv and instant challenge activities. A team that feels good about working together and trusts each other will do a better job.

5. Enlist your team members' parents. Have a parent meeting. Don't be shy about delegating some responsibilities. You'll go crazy if you do it all yourself.

4. Attend Team Manager's training. They have some excellent training materials and a good training session can give you a big boost. Don't miss it!

3. Use the web. This list is a good start. Visit the Destination ImagiNation web site once a week or so. Check out the clarification pages at least that often. Find your affiliate web site (www.georgiaenrichesminds.org). Visit the VOMBO web site (www.vombo.org). Follow some of the links and you will discover lots of resources.

2. Find a mentor. If you can, find a more experienced team manager who doesn't mind if you ask a few "dumb questions". A good candidate would be a manager who is in your challenge but at a different level.

1. Always remember to have FUN! If the team isn't having fun and you aren't having fun - something is wrong.

As a general thing I have a poster hanging Signs of Good Teamwork at every meeting. (Arguing is not on the list) Once they know what to do instead of arguing...I make a point of recognizing publicly any evidence of Teamwork that I see and letting the Team know how proud I am that they are catching on. I even write up little stickies with sincere & specific comments and post them for each Kid on a Teamwork Wall of Fame. Sometimes the stickies are for two or more kids and a positive interaction. Sometimes for the entire Team for an exceptional Team moment (they do come once or twice a season)

I start off with finding one for each kid and then add on randomly but as evenly as possible throughout the season. After awhile the kids can write up stickies for each other. This exercise even helps me to feel good about the Team when I might get bogged down by the negative instead.

Another thing you can do with arguing over a decision syndrome is to Brainstorm lots of ideas and then let them try to experiment or play with some of the ideas...and/or do the A- Lo-U (see TM Guide). The goal is for new or combo ideas to develop and to have their choice based as much as possible on first hand experience, not on politics. In your case, you can ask what are the things they like about each challenge...Are there elements in each that satisfy the same interests? For example, could the Transforming Prop in Holiday be made to have the same appeal as the StranDId Device? As long as everyone has something they are excited to do for the Team and as long as StranDId and Holiday are the 1st and 2nd choices of everyone..they should be able to stick with their choice. Remind them that in a matter of weeks this decision will be History and they'll be on to bigger and better things.

We love to Brainstorm, but at a certain point they have to come to a conclusion though...there's always the pressure if the schedule. My Team is getting pretty good at Teamwork (and not arguing...but it's still difficult under pressure of time. Here is something one TM did last year that has stuck with me as an inspiration. (Perhaps she would like to stand up and identify herself too.) This TM agreed to dye her hair blue if the Team accomplished something..it must have been major! My idea, is a bit less drastic as I am not that brave (yet?!) . They have had weeks of generating , brainstorming and exploring. At our next meeting...If they can come to consensus about who their Travelers are and what Country they are going to On Holiday (..that means a decision they all feel good about with out negative arguing...)I am going to let them give me a TM makeover...goofy hairdo and a new outfit from the dress up box. How's that for positive reinforcement?

Another technique is to fold a piece of paper (computer size) (you need seven pieces of paper) in half and then in half again one way and then the other. Each paper has about nine spaces then to write.

Each team member should write three ideas for say a prop across the paper and pass it on. No one can repeat ideas but they can build on ideas. It can get noisy but not as much as talking.

1) Present the problem to the team re: noise, complaints, maybe needing to meet elsewhere (at their homes), etc.). ask them to find solutions.

2) Last year with my 5-7 year olds, I gave them a lollipop as an IC. 1st, one had to pick one & give a creative idea as to what it might be. While they ate it, I would give tell them anything I needed to - but if they talked, they would lose their candy (although it wasn't a problem because they were too busy eating!) Anyway, maybe you could do something similar - 1 person give an idea at a time, going around the circle while brainstorming.

I also had private talks with a few of the noisier ones. I asked them why they were in DI, what their goal for the team was & how their bad behavior added to the solution. Just making them aware (away from the group) of their behavior & its negative effects helped. Having them come up with solutions (1 said he was bored, etc.) to bring back the next week helped, also. I reminded them that it is their team and they are in control to make it work for them.

When your team seems to be too pleased with themselves too early and has quit coming up with new ideas too soon:

Don’t tell my team, but for years I have used a devious plan for getting them to work on parts of the Central Challenge – disguise it as an Instant Challenge!

Let’s say your Central Challenge is to construct a “water vehicle” – you might create an Instant Challenge in which the team uses the standard list of IC materials (straws, labels, stirrers, corks, paper, string, index cards) to create a floating structure. After the IC, initiate a discussion of how they decided to give those items buoyancy, and get them to think about how they would solve the challenge if the items were bigger or smaller? If the items were heavier, lighter? (Of course, be very cautious about wading into interference waters – make sure that your discussions are very open-ended and that YOU have no pre-conceived notions of “correct” answers!)

With younger teams especially, I think part of the role of the TM is to help the team break down the Central Challenge into smaller challenges, and IC is a great tool to do this! And just between you and me, I’d be careful about having your meetings be too structured – or too close to what the kids have been doing for 6 or 7 hours in school that day – even the word “Homework” might be changed to something more intriguing?

Each year we seem to have a couple of kids who enjoy the research and a couple who are deathly allergic to it! Here’s an idea – each kid who has completed thorough research on her country gets to run a GAME for the others in which answering her questions about that country correctly allows each kid to take a step forward, with some kind of silly prize to the first one to reach the end – we’ve used things like having a soda while everyone else has drink mix- or being able to grab the couch rather than floor or chairs for watching a video- whatever your team values! The key is to turn this over to the kids – have the kids decide the prizes, have the kids make up the rules, have the kids run the game.

And don’t worry too much about each kid bringing their Challenge copies, or Current Events or notebooks - (all good ideas, by the way!) - It’s more important that they keep looking forward to meetings and bring their enthusiasm!

Some TMs have students and parents sign a “contract” that outlines these responsibilities. This works in some cases and is not needed in other cases. The objective here is to be sure that everyone involved understands-up front-what they are getting in to when they decide to commit to involvement with a Destination ImagiNation team. Having a clear understanding of what is expected will go a long way to preventing problems during the year.

Once the Challenge is chosen, the next step was to get agreement on how hard the team members want work. This is an important step for teams -- because if a couple of team members want the team to be "competitive" -- while other members want the team to be "casual" -- it can create a LOT of friction. There are three options:

Near the end of the year, many teams and TM are VERY frustrated – only one technical element done, no script (we don’t need no stinkin’ script), costumes are non-existent, props only half done and no solution in sight.

Here is a truly INSPIRATIONAL story that was passed along by Dee Urban, AD from NY.

It must have been more than a decade ago, tournament day in our region, and it was all the wonderful things that tournament day always is..... here's a great big secret that Regional Directors have known for years - we plan and try to have everything just right for the kids, but know that it really doesn't matter what we do..... if we provide a space (even the minimum allowable space) and some caring and enthusiastic folks to appraise the solutions, that's all we really need to do because the kids are going to come into the building, they are going to bring all manner of 'stuff' with them, and then the 'magic' happens! The kids take over, they ARE the tournament, and they make everyone associated with a tournament look great!

Anyway, at this particular tournament there was a vehicle challenge, it was one of the large, ride-on types of vehicles the kids had to build that year, and things at that particular venue were going very well.......until...... I got a call on the walkie talkie from our Challenge Master/Head Appraiser, Julio, that he needed me IMMEDIATELY! I have to tell you that this particular fellow was one of those rock solid folks that NEVER panics! Always knows exactly what to do, and is ALWAYS there for the kids first and everything else is a far distant last...... so when he called I knew something must be very unusual!

When I got to the site, the Julio explained to me that he had a 'team', well, actually two girls, out in the staging area who had no vehicle, no props, pretty much nothing done, but they had the plans and drawings of the vehicle they planned, they had a rack of costumes they had made, and they had storyboards and a script. They wanted to show the appraisers what they had done, and they wanted to be scored..... Julio asked "what do we do?"

We looked at one another for about one second and KNEW exactly what to do. We went out in the staging area and chatted with the two girls. They had started on a team of seven kids, one by one the kids dropped off the team for one reason or another - that was not the important part - but these two young ladies were determined to complete a solution and compete. The Team Manager had told them early on that all they had to do to be champions was to show a solution to the appraisers and that simple act would make them champions in everyone's eyes.... and they believed..... we asked where the Team Manager was and the two girls told us that he had also dropped out..... so we went back into the performance site and spoke with the timekeeper announcer - who introduced this 'team' by telling the audience what the team had told us in the staging area.

There must have been 300 people sitting in the bleachers in that gym, and it fell dead silent as these two young girls came out dragging a clothing rack behind them, with rolls of drawing paper under each arm, and no vehicle. They read their script, using 'voices' to denote different characters, they held up the costume that each character would wear....they indicated they were 'on' the vehicle and where they were going and what they were doing, they showed the audience and appraisers the drawings of the vehicle and props they planned, when time ended the last thing they said to the audience was "Next year we will be back WITH a vehicle!"...... the audience sat stunned for a few seconds (felt like an eternity) and then as if attached to each other rose as one to it's feet to offer a standing ovation..... these two girls really did embody the Spirit of CPS!

The appraisers, combed through all the schematic drawings of the planned vehicle with the girls in the post performance interview. Clearly these two had done a great deal of planning and research and had completed a marvelous solution, very creative, and very innovative, but of course not 'real'.

The team performed in it's Instant Challenge, and got some points on their team challenge for what the appraisers could give points for..... obviously they could not offer any points for 'tasks' but they could offer points for design of the vehicle, and for costumes, and script etc.

As it turned out this 'team' did NOT come in last at that tournament. They did get a special SPIRIT award, and when it was offered at the awards ceremony everyone once again stood to their feet to cheer..... these two young ladies had really made a difference in the lives of everyone at that tournament!

Now you would think this is where the story ends, but it's not. About two months later, after Globals, in the summer, my phone rang and it was one of these young ladies, she wanted to know if I could come and SEE the vehicle, they had just finished it and wanted to show it to a appraiser. I got in my car and drove the two hours to the school parking lot where I promised to meet them the next day.... and there they were.... both of them riding on the vehicle! Laughing and crying at the same time! They had set up the course as it was set for the tournament and were showing me all the tasks one by one, that the vehicle could do...... the three of us laughed and cried together that day in that empty school parking lot.

Now this was a VERY long story, but one that I think has some bearing on team's in a similar situation....... the tournament does NOT have to be the end of the journey for the team, and they CAN be a team with only two members who truly strive to be champions! (A champion is defined as a team that BEATS the challenge!)...... it's never too late.... there is time ..... and if all they do at a tournament is IC that's still more than many kids dared to take on!

Celebrate the successes of the team, continue to encourage them to achieve all they can, and they will amaze and delight you and make everyone look good that is associated with them.”

The important thing to focus on in February & March, when the stress of looming tournaments is upon teams and TMs, is THE PROCESS! There can be no failure in trying, and every success along the way should be noted and celebrated.

Edison found a thousand things that DIDN'T work for use as a filament in his light bulb, when asked how he handled the failure he responded something to the effect of "These attempts were not failures, I'm now a thousand things closer to success"

(The quote is from Ben Franklin: "I haven't failed. I've found 10,000 ways that won't work." )

.... sorry but I don't remember the exact quote or number of things..... the point is - maybe the team isn't going to be perfect at the tournament, maybe they are going to score in the bottom of the pack of teams all competing against that Challenge.... does that wipe out all the successes they have achieved along the way?

In 20 years in CPS I have never seen a team that I could not enthusiastically applaud at a tournament - I have never seen a team that didn't deserve the title "Champion"...... on some days, some teams will perform better than others, that is what a tournament is about, but all teams who have taken on the challenge have had success..... how can a TM ever be embarrassed by that?

From another TM -- I went in search of the famous quote by Thomas Edison about how he kept trying different solutions to CREATE the light bulb - something about how he was 900 ways nearer to getting it right...but found these three quotes instead. sounds like a round of D.I. team posters to me:

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

Hey guys! How do you determine how much money to ask each parent for? I am finding that I seem to be footing the bill for practice supplies and everything.

Also, any ideas on how to handle this situation... One family is having major financial problems. Their phone was disconnected before Christmas. I have heard rumors that their house may be foreclosed on. I don't think I can ask them for money. As if this wasn't sticky enough, this particular parent seems to hate me. She's very confrontational with me. I can handle the attitude. I just don't know what to do about the money. How are other DI teams funded? I'd like to continue doing this each year. Does that mean I pay for it each year?

What our school district did was each kid was charged a set fee to do DI then money for registration and T-shirts for the tournament was taken out.

This year as an individual membership I have asked each kid for 35.00 then I took the money out for registration as well as regional t-shirt. The rest went for balsa. I am keeping receipts but truthfully I have so much junk from doing this for the last 8 years that except for balsa and duct tape I have not spent too much.

Snacks we do a snack rotation. A monthly calendar has everyone's name on it for snack and if someone forgets well no snack. Sometimes I tell the kids to bring money for marathon meeting and if they get things done we go out for a treat or order a pizza.

As far as the one with no money....well I'd just carry her or him. I have done that in the past. Funny the parent was also confrontational. In retrospect, I think she was looking for a way out (which I never gave her) because she couldn't afford it. I wish I would have realized that sooner because I took a lot of it personally. It would have been better had she just told me they could not afford snacks etc......

At your start-of-the-year parent meeting, explain that everyone shares all costs of supplies, both IC practice and stuff for solving the challenge and, perhaps, costs for any field trips or pizza parties. Two ways I've done it:

-- collect an amount up-front from each family, maybe $20 or 30. Keep receipts and a record of what gets spent. Make copies of the record periodically and give to each family as an update, or

-- keep all receipts, total them, divide by number of kids on the team and send a "bill" to each family at tournament time.

It's also helpful to make lists of items needed and send them home with the kids. This works especially well for IC supplies, as most people will have a handful of straws or a half skein of yarn lying around and will be happy to donate them to the team. Or, when the team decides it needs a 2x4 or a sheet or a tennis ball, ask the kids if anyone has an old one lying around at home that their parents wouldn't mind getting rid of.

If you haven't told the families about sharing costs, perhaps it's time to hold a parent meeting and explain the situation. Ask everyone for ideas on ways to address the issue of keeping the team supplied. It probably would be helpful to have copies of receipts or boxes of stuff you've purchased, in case your confrontational parent decides to argue.

If they don’t finish, then they didn’t finish – but that doesn’t mean that the TMs failed

I think my husband is getting a little worried and he's trying to make sure they show some progress at every meeting. Which can be a little restraining at times for the kids. Does anyone have any advice I can give him on patience and how important it is that the kids do this themselves, in their own way, even if they don't get it all done the way they planned?

Dear Karen -I think this is one of the major problems we all face at one time or another - TM's and parents alike. I had a parent last year very concerned about my teams progress - which up until the last three weeks was practically nil. I had to constantly repeat to her that "it's their problem - not ours" - over and over and over again. She would sputter and vent - and I found the only thing I could do was keep repeating that statement until she finally "heard" me.

I think the hardest lesson we have to learn - as both parents and teachers and TM's - is that the things our children do are not reflections of us as individuals. We like to think that we are responsible for the things our kids do - but we're not - they are. If they don't get done - THEY don't get done - it means THEY didn't finish - it does not mean we failed them. Ultimately we are all responsible for our own behavior. And what better time than when they are this young to learn that they only have themselves to blame in life for what they do - or do not do.

And maybe stressing to your husband that the best lessons we learn in life - we learn through our own mistakes and accomplishments. And the BEST way to teach a child - is to allow them the freedom to take a chance and do things their way - and make mistakes - and learn from them . And then their accomplishments and successes will be THEIRS! The sense of pride that comes from doing a job well –and knowing you did it yourself - well - to me it is unmatched. And if they can discover that kind of pride in themselves at this young age - they will carry that with them through their life. And later into adolescence - maybe they'll be less likely to follow peer pressures that lead to problems with drugs or alcohol - and maybe when they are adults - they'll be more likely to take have confidence in their abilities and they'll have the knowledge that they CAN go after their dreams in their careers instead of taking a job that just pays the bills.

Tell your husband - that what helps me - is when I trust that the kids will learn from this no matter what happens - and sometimes – the learning curve is slower for some than others. Some kids need to not get done and have huge mistakes happen during competition in order to learn the price of procrastination and not working up to their abilities, you know ? We can tell them this until we are blue in the face - but they need to learn it for themselves to KNOW it. And the only way to learn it for themselves - is to sit back - pretend we have duct tape on our mouths - and just let them be.

Question: I am wondering how much help can we give them. For instance, can we help them paint, color, cut, glue, etc? Or do they have to do it all? I mean if they design the object, can we help them get it's form?

Answer: Destination Imagination is a "challenge" for team managers and parents, too, because we are really used to "helping" our kids, as in boy scouts and budding scientists with their projects. The short answer is "DON'T!" Helping them do something or showing them how to do it is interference.

The DI Team Managers Guide explains for team members and for managers exactly WHAT interference is and how to steer clear. I go over this with the team at the very beginning and make sure their parents understand, too.

The long answer is, The help you CAN provide is a place where the kids can experiment and build, access to the resources they need and time to do it. Solutions in Destination Imagination are entirely the children's work. ENTIRELY...that's the tough part. That means you can't hold the wood while they saw, you can't tell them it would be a little stronger if they'd put hot glue in the joint, you can't suggest painting the cardboard box yellow, etc. etc.

One team manager told me that she drew the line at safety: if the children "needed" to use a piece of power equipment that she didn't think they could safely operate, then she'd do that piece for them.

BUZZZZZ! That's a wrong answer. If the kids can't do something safely, they need to invent or create a way to solve it that is safe and up to their skill level. Or do something else entirely. If they determine they need to cut wood, for example, you can give them (or have someone else give them) a lesson in sawing safely and accurately. BUT you may not give the lesson on the exact wood that they will use in their solution. That piece of wood needs to be measured and cut BY THE TEAM ONLY. (You can however, drive them to the lumber yard or the scrap wood alley and drive them back after they pick out what they need. Or they can tell you they need XYZ specific kind/size of wood and you can get it for them.)

I remind them a lot "this is YOUR solution" and everything the audience and judges see will represent their work, their ideas and their creativity. My team knows they can give ME a warning if they think I'm stepping over the interference line.

Question: Some of you more experienced hands help me out, please. I built two balsa structures (part of Triplicity solution) for my team to test in our crusher - NOT to be used in their solution itself (in fact I wrote TEST all over them in magic marker to invalidate them). The sample structures were built according to their plans, and they used the results of the crusher tests as confirmation that their plan was good enough to suit them and proceeded to build their own, slightly different structures to use at the tournament. Those structures, the ones that'll be in the tournament, were built entirely and only by team members. I think this is not interference - what do y'all think?

Response: YES, it is absolutely interference. Let me explain why......When you do ANY part of the solution for the kids, you are literally stealing the opportunity for them to learn from what they are doing and even when they fail at doing something, they learn...and usually more than they would have if it all worked out fine the first time. I know it was their design...but as your hands did the cutting and gluing, did they learn how to hold the blade just right? Glue just enough, get the feel of the wood and how it holds together? Why it works when you press it just this way...but doesn't when you do that?

The learning is IN THE DOING. You can teach them the skills of how to safely use a tool...how to use a sewing machine for costumes, or how to do other skills that THEY have decided that they need to know in order to create their vision of what they want...but it MUST come from them. It is their experience in DI, not yours...they own this...not you. Think of yourself as their 'Guide on the Side.'

Believe me, I know how frustrating it can be to stand by and watch them do something (while talking and horsing around) that would take you 5 minutes and they are going on three hours...and I have had moments when I had to walk outside and even once I locked myself in the bathroom! But if I had interfered, they would have lost that opportunity to learn time management, and to feel the true satisfaction of “We did it ALL ourselves!”

The trial and error part of this PROCESS is key to their learning experience. Please help them to take these life skills and make them their own.

You also have the opportunity of teaching them honesty. When your team goes to competition, please make sure that when you sign the Team Declaration, that you show them that you all honestly write down that their team has had outside interference, and exactly what it was.

I am very glad that you wrote. It shows that you truly want your team to go by the rules, to learn what this program has to teach, and for you to understand what we have to offer as well.

It would be interference to listen to the kids plan, say, a costume, then say, "I have just the thing for the headpiece," and drag out that old steam iron that no longer works. It would even be interference to say, "When you get around to planning costumes, I have a box of old fabric you're welcome to use." It would NOT be interference for you to give the team a tour of your stuff, pointing out that you have many things around the house that they're welcome to use. Just do it in a general way, saying, "If you think of a use for this or these or those, then you're welcome to them." It's good to do this before they've laid a lot of plans--too easy to GUIDE them to use something if they've already gotten ideas about what they need to make. Do it early, and avoid suggesting WHAT things can be used for. Just offer them for use.

[If you can, designate a place for storing these items and let them know anything in that location is theirs to take. I strongly suggest you have them check with you before they use anything you have lying around. If you don't do this, your brand new sofa cushion or tablecloth or vacuum cleaner will suddenly turn up (dismantled or painted, of course) in their presentation. BELIEVE THIS!]

The key here is that it is interference to provide specific materials intended for use by the team for a specific purpose. It is also interference to suggest materials they might acquire for specific purposes. It is NOT interference to provide a stack of raw materials for which there might be many different uses, as long as you refrain from making suggestions about those uses. Many teams use fabric, paints, glitter, glue, tools, old motors, cardboard, wood, etc., sometimes in surprising ways. Providing these general-purpose things is part of the team manager's job, in my opinion and not interference. It is also NOT interference to say, "What kinds of things do you think you could use for that?"--even to suggest they look around them for ideas--as long as you haven't carefully "seeded" their supplies with things you think they should use.

An important point to make here is that it is not the intent of DI to force young kids to do dangerous things by themselves. If they have designed a solution which they cannot build safely without adult assistance, then what they must do is to modify their design (or scrap it altogether) and come up with something which they can build safely.

There is a tendency for the adults to want to jump in and help the kids with the sawing or the drilling because the kids are just too young and inexperienced to use the devices safely. You must understand that it is still interference.

Safety comes first, but the correct response to a design which can't be built safely is NOT for the adults to do it, it is for the kids to modify the design or to use simpler tools.

You also may be surprised at what the kids can do if you take the time to train them on the tool and how to use it safely. When you're done, not only can the kids be proud that they accomplished a difficult task by themselves, but

....the Challenges are written to allow teams as much latitude as possible when solving them. This means that the definitions of some of the elements are left "vague" to allow teams to solve the Challenge any way that they wish. The Challenge can be solved using very simple technical devices or more complex ones. Those choices are up to the team.

There are 2 main principles that can be applied to solving any of the DI Challenges.....

Rule #1 states that if the Challenge (or the Rules of the Road) doesn't say that you cannot do something, then it is safe to assume that you can do it.

Rule #2 states that if the Challenge (or the RotR) says that you cannot do something, then you cannot do it. The corollary to Rule #2 is that if the Challenge (or the RotR) say that you must do something, then you must do it.

However, it is important for the team to understand the scoring of the Challenge. There is another principle called Sutton's Law....it says "go where the money is". Willie Sutton was a bank robber and when asked why he robbed banks he said "because that's where the money is". The practical application of this is that your team must understand where the points are coming from. This is not so they can be more competitive but so they understand what they are being asked to do and how much emphasis is being placed on that aspect of the Challenge. Every subjectively scored aspect of each Challenge has a continuum that the Appraisers apply. At one end of the continuum will be very very simple solutions and at the other extreme will be very innovative ones. The simple solutions will usually receive scores on the lower end of the range while the very creative and innovative ones would be expected to receive scores at the higher end of the scale. Now, if we apply this to your question regarding the technical aspects of It's Your

Move, then those solutions using very simple principles with minimal innovation, creativity, and/or integration (and sometimes complexity) would fall at the lower end of the scoring range. Those solutions demonstrating a high degree of creativity, etc. would hopefully be rewarded with a higher score. (Frank Begun)

B - Backdrop, background of characters, balance, build logically to a conclusion

K - Knowledge of subject - research before and while writing script, keep the interest of the audience

S - sound effects, number of scene changes, have you solved the challenge? Setting, does it tell a story? Special talents of team members

T - transitions between scenes (are they smooth), time period, technical aspects

I forget the source on this, but I've heard a story about a speaker on time management who begins by taking a jar and saying it represents the available time. The speaker then places several large rocks in the jar -- and asks "Is this jar is full?"

After about half the people raise their hands, the speaker takes a cup full of sand and pours it into the jar. This time, when he asks the question, only a few people raise their hands (I guess nobody likes to look dumb). The speaker then proceeds to pour a glass of water into the jar.

The speaker then asked "What is the lesson we learned from this exercise?" Somebody responded "You can always get more done in the available time if you're organized". To this, the speaker responded "That's true, but the REAL lesson of this exercise is that you'd better start filling your jar with the big rocks!!".

The reason I'm sharing this story is that I found the teams I managed were usually drawn to solve the "easy" or "fun" parts of their Challenge first. This often created significant constraints on how they would solve the "hard" parts of their Challenge. The "problem" is that trying to start with the "hard parts" might leave the team "stuck" or frustrated.

One of the Challenges a TM faces is making sure their team "strikes a balance" in how they fill their jar. They need to think about the "big rocks" (the "hard parts" or the high-scoring elements) early enough that they have "maximum flexibility" in how they attack those issues. Similarly, I've found that progress begets progress -- by which I mean that if a team gets SOMETHING done, this often provides inspiration and energy to get other things done.

I often tried to "channel" this energy towards the hard/important bits -- but would redirect the team to something "fun" or "easy" whenever it appeared they were losing momentum.

There isn't a single "right answer" on this. However, I've had enough teams dismiss a REALLY creative approach to a high-scoring element simply because it wasn't consistent with the approach adopted for a low-scoring element that they'd already completed that I tried to get the team to at least brainstorm the high-scoring elements before they built ANYTHING.

Our team set a goal of what they had to accomplish before they were allowed to eat. Sometimes they were eating on the way out the door, but usually they reached their goal for the meeting. At the beginning of the year their goals weren’t very big and then they got more serious as time went on.

My team loved to build things and hated doing research and writing – and we used that as an incentive too. No making of anything until the research and script are basically done. I think we all figure out what works for our teams and utilize that.

Although time consuming, another strategy to help create a team solution is to use a matrix to make the decision. The team lists the best solutions that they have brainstormed in the first column, and what they are attempting to accomplish (or what points they are attempting to achieve) across the top row. Pick a scale) I like 1-2-3: doesn’t work, works, great) and compare each idea the each criteria. (I have them hold up a finger with their vote and average each comparison.

At the end, we add up the points for each idea and unless it’s nearly a tie, it becomes obvious to everyone what needs to be done. The most difficult team I ever had, did have a 16 to 15 result on a crucial decision. We rethought the solution, adapting it to include elements of both ideas and everyone was ready to move on.

	Criteria 1	Criteria 2	Criteria 3	Criteria 4
Solution 1
Solution 2
Solution 3
Solution 4
Solution 5

Before the team begins solving their challenge take them backstage at any theatre production (community, college or HS production). Ask the backstage director/crew might be able to point out some particularly interesting “stagecraft” – how to paint cardboard so that it looks like wood, brick, velvet or rock; how to create cheap costumes that wow an audience; observe skills that have been used to give props a realistic appearance. Also have team members observe other theatre skills like enunciation and how important that is so that the appraisers hear every word. When they see a stage production, they can visualize how to get the biggest impact from their art, their ideas and their script. Practicing on a stage is helpful too. If one team member is in the audience, they can convey to their team members if they could hear and understand lines and see their art and backdrops.

Take your team to visit four types of stores: craft supply store, hardware store, fabric store and office supply store for 30 minutes each.

The kids were armed with a list of questions to answer in each store, with the end product being a list of materials and supplies from which they can draw ideas when they are working on their solution during the year.

Name different kinds of textiles (fabrics). Look for different textures and different properties.

Name different types of paper products. (Look for different textures and properties.)

Let kids experiment in arts and crafts. Give them arts & crafts materials and let them experiment. Don’t give them instructions unless they ask how to be taught a specific technique.

Give them paint and “things” to add to the paint - eggshells, coffee grounds, sand, glitter, etc. Let them mix it up and get messy and paint it on cardboard, wood, fabric, etc. Also painting utensil – my team did this while they were painting some box houses used in their props. They had a crappy paint brush and in frustration, one started pounding it on top of the “house” - and what do you know...next thing I hear is “Cool guys, come here - when you paint like this, it looks like stone!”

Our team has such trouble getting our storyline together. I found a blank adding machine roll tape. I had the kids draw their story idea like a comic strip – putting the story in sequence – I had each of them work in a separate point in the script of their own choosing. Then they put them all together, taped all the separate comic strips to the wall in sequence – and it took off from there like a rocket. Crayons can say so many things that words can’t.

You can also do this with a large newsprint pad. Once the scenes are drawn, the kids can put them on the wall in the order they choose.

This can be tricky; there are lots of opinions on the subject. My idea is that brand new or used things the team went out and bought specifically for use in their solution must be charged out at the actual cost. If they buy a can of paint for $5 and use half of it, they need only charge out $2.50, not the entire $5. They only need to claim the cost of the actual amount/portion of something they used. On the other hand, if you buy a new lawnmower for $250 specifically for use in the team's solution and then use only the wheels, it isn't OK to decide the wheels are only 5% of the total weight of the lawnmower, charging out $12.50.

Old or used items you (or the neighbor) have lying around, we generally charge out at a fair rummage-sale price. If you have an old t-shirt that is still usable--that is, in good shape, then you have to figure out what it might sell for at a rummage sale (in its current condition) and charge it out accordingly. If the t-shirt is stained and has a hole in it, then I'd call it a rag and charge it out at 5 cents or call it junk and assign it no value. It wouldn't be OK to take a good t-shirt and stain it or put a hole in it just so that you could charge it out at 5 cents though.

Something we've always struggled with is what to put for cost on broken items. My teams have used a lot of broken things--that is, broken for their original intended use. I once had a team that used the same broken cordless screwdriver in every solution they ever presented--for YEARS. It was a tradition; they deliberately designed it into every presentation they did--sort of a good luck charm. The thing was broken before they got their hands on it the first time, then it got more dilapidated every year they used it. My co-TM/husband always thought it was crazy to assign it any value at all. He claimed no one except DI members would give you a cent for it. Good point; however, we felt better giving it some value, so we rather arbitrarily assigned it a junk value of 4 or 5 dollars the first year, then sort of depreciated it out (50 cents a year as I recall) in subsequent years. Other people will suggest different things in this situation; this is simply what my kids did. Never had anyone challenge them on it.

True junk items--empty cans or milk jugs, pantyhose with runs in them, cardboard shipping cartons from an appliance, rusty nails found at a construction site--can be charged out as junk with no value, although my teams tend to give a really cheap value, even to true junk, just to play it safe.

The thing to remember when costing things out is that the idea of a cost limit is to make it possible for any team with the same budget to produce pretty much the same solution. That means that if a team member's Uncle Harry has a hardware store and is willing to sell the team items at his cost, you can accept the good deal (to save money), but must list a cost for which the item would sell to the general public. Only if anyone else could go into Uncle Harry's store and acquire the same item at the same price can you claim the discounted price on your cost forms.

If the team is in a discount store and finds a deal where spray paint is selling for, say, 10 for a dollar--and anyone who happened into the store could buy it for that price--then my advice is to stock up on spray paint and list the actual price paid on your cost form. That's called good shopping! That's also the kind of thing team managers learn to do all year around--buying on speculation just in case the team decides some day to use spray paint. (Don't kid yourself--EVERY team decides to use spray paint!)

So if the things you bought or acquired would be pretty much generally available at a given price to any team who happened by at the time, then that's the price you use, even if it so happens you're the lucky team who got there first.

Let's say your team is using seashells in their solution and you live by the ocean. It's likely that your team can acquire seashells for nothing by walking the beach and picking them up. So could any other team that lives or visits near you. On the other hand, my teams in South Dakota would have to go to a shop and pay $3-4 a piece for seashells. That doesn't mean your team has to cost them out at $3-4, since seashells are generally available to any other team in your area who walks the beach. I don't think, though, that it would be OK for my team to list seashells as free using the argument that YOUR team can get them on the beach. If we had to buy them, we should list the cost of acquiring them. Lucky teams have team members who make a point of picking up things like this when they're on vacation or who will ask Aunt Martha for those she picked up on her vacation back in '82.

Encourage your kids to look at everything as potential raw material for their problem solution. Mine have rooted in garbage in bars (looking for a large number of 20 oz. soda bottles); rummaged in rusting junk piles on local farms (with permission); dug around in neighbors' basements (permission needed here too); watched the ground around them as they walked around; toted off broken lawnmowers, bicycles, and alarm clocks. One of their triumphs was built out of one of those old fake grass covered banana trees you used to see in supermarkets. They saw it in storage and asked for it; the store manager said, "Just don't bring it back." Gave that a value of $2, I recall, even though they acquired it for nothing.

Every team should brainstorm ways to "failure proof" your team! You CAN and should plan for the little and major disasters that could happen. The best way to do so is to be prepared for all the 'what ifs and know that you will miss a few of them. Have the team:

Encourage your team to HAVE FUN, and be creative with their ideas...ad-libbing always scores well!

Cause 'spontaneous' mishaps during practice to allow your team to practice the plan! A good example is deliberately leaving the batteries out of the tape player, or knocking over a prop during a rehearsal.

DO IT!! As with everything in life success comes with practice...Practice....PRACTICE!!!

Certainly, a key member of the team (which is ANY member!) not being at the tournament would be something the team should prepare for!!!

As we head towards tournament day, some much closer than others, I thought I'd pass on a idea that worked for my team of 8th graders last year. Our last two weeks before regional competition was stressful- no required technical element, no one knew their part, costumes not done, and everyone feeling like they were the only one working...team morale? bickering, put downs, and cliques. Remembering pysch. 101, I was thinking that the team members themselves needed to give each other less criticism (negative reinforcement) and more compliments (positive reinforcement). Instead of complaining that the technical element wasn't getting done, or criticizing a teammate for missing a cue, the team should notice who and when good things were happening. And so was born the "positive reinforcement bowl."

I bought small, individually wrapped candy (Rolos, Starburst, individually wrapped Life Savers etc. the smaller the better, but nothing messy) and put them in a large bowl, the "positive reinforcement bowl." Whenever one team member saw another team member making a positive contribution, they could get two pieces of candy- one for the contributor and one for themselves and tell the contributor specifically what they liked as they ate the candy. We

had more compliments team member to team member the first meeting we used the "PRB" then we had the entire season before. Not only do you get rewarded for a doing a good job, but you also get rewarded for noticing when other people are doing a good job. It's another good skill to have.

I know that the PRB made an impression, because the team has asked for it again. I'm just trying to time it so we don't start gorging ourselves on candy (TM's good use the PRB too) any longer than has an optimum impact.

I would like some suggestions on how to much to budget for purchasing balsa wood for a team considering Triplicity. The team is made of 5th graders who just want to have fun.

How much it costs to purchase enough balsa is a tricky question- a LOT depends on just how much the kids build...and the thing is everything they build...well they DO have to break it! SO...yes it can add up but there are ways to help cut costs. The years that balsa cost the most for our young teams was when we bought every stick at a hobby store. Prices ranged from 30-50 cents per stick and there was variable consistency between stores. (We didn’t even know where balsa came from to begin with- or that there was a difference between suppliers!) I don’t know for sure what current costs are running- but over past the past few years, buying balsa in bulk has averaged about 14-25 cents per stick. To buy in bulk means purchasing from some company such as Balsa USA, SIG Mftg, Superior (which is a CA supplier), or Hobby Lobby or Tower Hobbies through a catalogue. There are numerous others. Another thing to think about is that your order really should be inspected and weighed by the kids and some team-decided system developed to care for their materials. I REALLY recommend reading Bill Allen’s Balsa Guide which you can find at the CAOM web site or linked from my Team Managers Resources page at IL Far North Region pages http://www.farnorthdi.org/Coaches_Resources.htm TM Network web page

The one thing that really helped us in St Louis was to purchase our balsa in German town section of town- at Schaeffer Hobbies (they have since opened some new stores around the county). Schaeffer was very supportive- let the kids bring in their scale and allowed them to weigh sometimes 500 sticks at a time. Not every place will let you do that... and most hobby stores don’t carry a supply of 1/8 x 1/8 (a basic size used over the years-the store also carries other size sticks) that would number even a 100- so to find a place that regularly stocked 300-500 sticks (they got theirs from SIG) was a true miracle!

If your kids are "just wanting to have fun" then maybe just purchasing a selection of sizes in maybe 25 sticks per size would work out for you. Once the kids have their design set and they know what weight and size of stick they REALLY need most- then the task will get a lot tougher.

I encourage you to order a Pitsco Catalogue if you don’t have one already- address/phone is available at the link given above. SIG also has a catalogue- it's info is probably on that same page.

The Structure Challenge (like all Challenges) really requires the team to do some "skills development" before they can solve it well. There has always been some disagreement about what represents "interference" when helping a structure team learn how to design and build strong structures. I tried to put together a guide to help Structure TMs a couple of years ago. It is still available at: http://caom.org/california/tmguide3.doc

This guide was NOT developed with any particular Challenge in mind -- so there shouldn't be anything in there that could be considered Interference. Similarly, there will be some things included in this years Challenge that are not considered in that guide. Hopefully, it will give you some ideas on structure-oriented activities you might want to do with your team.

As an aside, I get a "password dialog" when I try to access that site (even though I'm assured there is no password). I find that hitting "cancel" to the password request gets me to the site.

It has been my experience as a TM for many years--always in a technical problem--that generally technical devices are judged based on their technical complexity, not on their innovation or creativity, whatever the challenge requirements say. My teams have tried elegant and simple; and they have tried messy and complicated. Messy and complicated has scored better every time, even when it wasn't as innovative or as creative. They also quit cleaning up their wiring--tacking everything down so it looks neat and eliminating excess length. The more wires it looked like, the more impressed the judges were--every time and at every level. Ditto gears, pulleys, switches, etc. The more parts and pieces it looks like you have--a la Rube Goldberg--the better the score. They've joked about hanging a few extra non-functional pulleys, etc. on things just for looks, although they haven't actually done it---yet.

I remember in particular a challenge they where something called "functional engineering" was scored. We were never able to determine just what this was, until at the state tournament they heard a judge explain to another team that it meant "electrical and mechanical complexity." Wish they could've gotten that information BEFORE the tournament--but that's another story. They decided that that's what innovation and creativity meant too--and they were right more than they were wrong.

The second motor flipped a switch that started another motor which--I am not making this up--flipped another switch. Goal: turn on a light! They could've wired the whole thing in 10 minutes if they'd been going for simple. The judges loved it! There you go.

Ok, so I've been doing "technical element" challenges going on 4 years now and this is what I've discovered:

Shakespeare: The technical element was a setting sun that by the end of our performance dropped behind the backdrop. The design and engineering was pretty simple...gravity was what made it all work together, it was kind of like an hour glass... by dropping weight from a can the weight was able to decrease and push the sun over...it was simple and elegant and did quite well at regional.

Music: We tried the simple theory again with a revolving umbrella and hearts dangling from it showing love between 2 characters...again we used a motor driven by gravity...it was the simplest concept...what made it score well was the creativity and idea behind it though...it fit well into what we were doing and looked nice and not much cost...it scored great at regional and states

Anonymous: Last year we kicked the "simple theory" to the curb but kept the creativity, innovation, and elegance...I think...we had a wall mask that completed simple facial expressions but it was done by a gravity driven motor concept but we had to connect it all together so that all the motions could happen together but it was the same concept as the year before but became more complex when we wanted it to complete more complex tasks...it was the hardest thing to I'd every made but worked great...it did great at tournaments and we got 2 Creativity Awards and it did well at Global too...

So, my guess would be to go with a little MORE complexity than just one or two tasks but don't just put in things that aren't needed...having extra stuff that isn't needed I don't agree with but if everything in your complex machine is needed and help the device work the way you want it then keep it. BUT keep the creativity and innovation in there to...if it integrates well and has creative aspects that adds to the story or whatever then to me those are the best technical devices because they obviously took time, thought, and effort to pull off...TAKE RISKS TOO! ...

I find that the simple approaches tend to be rewarded in the objective points. That is, they tend to get the ball in the hole whereas more complex solutions often tend to break or don't perform well under pressure. I think the kids need to be rewarded in the subjective points for risk taking and extending their knowledge and skills.

A simple solution that is "all they could think of" does not represent creativity or innovation. I like to look for "innovative simplifications". That is, a solution that used simplification to meet cost, safety, or other constraints.

Here is the foundation for the discussion of "innovation" I use when training my appraisers:

For instance a Rube Goldberg device or perhaps the team used a motorized gate with a light-activated switch where a manual one would have been more reliable and less complex.

The MacGuyver Factor - using a chewing gum wrapper to defeat the security system at Fort Knox.

"I never would have thought of using an X as a Y!" (e.g., X=dryer vent tubing, Y=egg decelerator)

"We wanted to use a 5Kw, 230V, 3500 rpm permanent magnet motor but the cheapest we could find was $295 so we refurbished this electric (internal combustion engines are a no-no) leaf blower motor we got at a garage sale for $5."

These are some websites that give help teaching team members about simple machines.

Here the BrainPop format is applied to simple machines with its animated graphics and colorful format. Of course there's a pop quiz and a movie explaining the science behind the machines. Levers and inclined planes are featured here.

Part of the "Exploring Leonardo" site, Inventor's Toolbox covers the basics of simple machines as well as more sophisticated kinds of machines, and then applies them in examples of inventions by Leonardo himself and by viewing the "Gadget Anatomy" page where students can study complex machines.

InQuiry Almanack: Simple Machines -
http://www.fi.edu/qa97/spotlight3/spotlight3.html Philadelphia's Franklin Institute spotlights the six basic machines and the science behind each, with extra information on each machine and an occasional demonstration of a specific principal. This page has an attractive design and is appropriate for elementary aged students.

Mechanisms and Simple Machines
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/rapidproto/mechanisms/chpt2.html Carnegie Mellon University offers this college-level explanation of simple machines and the principles of physics which take place behind their operation. The jargon is fairly technical and the

sketches help to demonstrate the concepts being presented. Ideal for older students.

Moving Along with Simple Machines
-http://www.henry.k12.ga.us/cur/simp-mach/instruction.htm The teachers of Henry County, Georgia designed this four week elementary unit on simple machines, with very detailed lesson ideas, creative activities for demonstrating principles of simple machines, and connections across the curriculum to make learning more meaningful for students.

Motion, Energy and Simple Machines
http://www.necc.mass.edu/MRVIS/MR3_13/start.htm Here's a more advanced look at simple machines, focusing on the laws of physics and some of the formulae used to calculate the work being done by simple machines. It is very linear in format and best utilized by older students who are ready to master more sophisticated concepts without all the bells and whistles of other sites.

Simple Machines -http://library.thinkquest.org/J002079F/sub3.htm This ThinkQuest entry on the book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH takes students through explanations, pictures and animations of simple machines. Of particular interest to students will be the instructions for building a working elevator out of K'Nex building blocks.

Simple Machines Made Simpler -http://www.smartown.com/sp2000/machines2000/ SmartTown presents this brightly adorned, musically inclined site about each of the simple machines with crisp explanations and animated examples of each. There's an interactive quiz at the end which could offer more student feedback than it does, but it nonetheless does test students on basic understandings of machines and work.

Toting the Log and Lifting the Bale
-http://www.crpc.rice.edu/CRPC/GT/dawsonm/CAST/CAST95.html

This workshop presented by the Science Teachers Association of Texas is all plain text and requires lots of scrolling. But the wealth of simple classroom applications here you can use to promote an understanding of simple machines is so worthwhile, I decided to include it in this week's picks. When you have time to kick back and survey all the ideas contained herein, do so!

-Don’t dumb down your solution to meet some perceived idea of your appraisers level of understanding. What you should do is make sure your solution is clearly visible to the appraisers. Remember, they only see your solution one time and have a brief time to talk with your afterwards.

- Do your research by performing in front before someone who has never seen your team before (family, teachers, neighbors) and then ask them about some of the things you think they should have noticed. (Be careful to keep this at research and not interference!)

-Are there creative ways you can make sure these things are noticed rather than the obvious route of pointing and saying “Now that’s a discovery!” What are your strongest points and how can you make the weaker things stronger? Do you have too much going on? Are things hidden from the appraisers and audience? Can you be heard?

-Also, remember to especially point out things that need to be looked at up close when you are talking to the appraisers. Remember that appraisers specialize, so ask who is judging the technical element. This way you can spend the limited time where it will do the most good.

-Spread out your team during the talk session. If everyone is talking to only 1 or 2 of the appraisers, that means there are a bunch of appraisers who are not getting the info they need to evaluate your score. Listen for hints. When an appraiser says, “Who can tell me about...?” they are most probably looking for information because they are appraising that item. Make sure the right team members are talking to the right appraisers. NEVER let an appraiser wander around alone after your performance - they are not just curious visitors, they have work to do and you can help them!

-I believe that complex is good if it is elegant. I believe that simple or complex can both be creative, and either can decidedly common place - each must be evaluated on its own merits. I believe that every appraiser has their own belief system, so remember that what I say may not apply to any other appraiser you meet.

-Also - a caution. Don’t assume that “performance” appraisers are not technical or that “technical” appraisers don’t understand the fine and performing arts. As a techie, I love appraising the more theatrical challenges, because it is so different from my job. My husband, an artist, loves the technical challenges. With the new challenges, you can expect that variety will be required not only from the teams, but from the appraisal teams as well.

-Please try and remember that you and your team have been working on this challenge for months, the appraisers have likely had no more than one training session. Hopefully, they've read the challenge several times. But that's as good as it gets.

-On performance day, they will have 8 minutes to watch your performance, and about 10 minutes to talk with you, record your scores, write their comments on sticky notes and then move on to the next team. It goes like that all day long, it's very hectic and stressful. But most of the time it's an awful lot of fun and incredibly rewarding.

-The appraisers, even old guys like me, are usually more nervous than you are. We are incredibly worried that we might mess up something that will hurt one of teams.

-It's not as bad as it sounds. When the challenge is well formulated and written, the appraisers assignments and score sheets take this inexperience into account, and have tasks broken up into somewhat manageable pieces that a person can quickly learn and do very well with very little training.

-First time appraisers are not only trying to figure out just what the challenge is, but what they are supposed to do. In our region we've always had a good mix of returning and new appraisers, so the old hands help out the newbies and even when things go wrong, they have always worked out in the end. I'll save my worst horror story for later.

-Don't be afraid to ask the appraisers questions if you don't think something was incorrectly scored. There have been a handful of times where teams have disputed something the appraisers have done. Sometimes the teams were right, sometimes not. But we always addressed the problem and fixed it where necessary. Just ask your questions in a polite, non- confrontational manner. I've never met an appraiser that wasn't trying to do the right thing. Most will bend over backwards to double check rules to make sure the kids are fairly treated.

-Do your homework and know the rules. - Read everything. I've have been painfully disappointed several times over the years to see teams lose points for things that are really obvious. I've had post-performance conversations with more than one TM that had nothing more than a copy of the challenge and had never seen the general rules of the road. This just isn't right. Every challenge I've ever seen has statement that says you must read the general rules. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir. If you you're involved enough to be on this mailing list, you're probably not going to make an error like that.

-After the performance point out and explain your solutions to the appraisers, especially the stuff you are really proud of. Adults are just not as creative at figuring out how you did something, as you were when you did it. If you don't tell us how you did it, we might not give you as high a score as you deserve. In past years some teams have made photo albums of themselves building and working on their solutions and brought them along to show the appraisers after the performance. We really don't have as much time as we'd like to really enjoy these, but they are really great.

- We hold the score sheets for the first three performances. At that time there is a scheduled break where the appraisers can get together and make sure they all understand how things work and that they are correctly scoring things.

-Especially if are performing early in the day. No matter how good (or bad) the performance, you'll probably receive subjective scores somewhere in the middle of the range. The appraisers must do this. They need to leave themselves scoring room for later performing teams that may be better or worse. Everything is relative for subjective scores.

-Same here, all that organized cheering just doesn't have any effect. Most of the time we're so involved in your performance that we don't even notice the audience is there. Please reference Rules of the Road - Specific rules related to this now

-On the other hand, if you're in the audience. Cheer for everyone. When the timer/announcer says "Good Morning", return the greeting. It raises the energy level for everyone and we all have a lot more fun.

We as TM need to prepare teams during the process of creating for the inevitability of subjective appraisals. Every appraiser faces difficult questions like– what is a creative costume? Is it one that uses common materials in a different way? Is it one that uses a sign around your neck that says “dog” and you behaviors convince the appraisers what you are? Remember, that appraisers can only give scores for what they see. And they are interested in giving your team the most points possible.

Note for the 2002-2003 season, the requirement that each side trip be from a different area of specialty has been eliminated. I have edited previous year’s advice to remove most references to “Specialites.”

The side trips are like the icing on the cake. They are the delicious extra that sets off the main course! Side trips give team members the chance to “show off” their special abilities and talents for the appraisers. This is the part of the competition that lets the team choose three things they would like to be scored on.

The side trips can be anything that is not a required element of the Central Challenge and that can be scored as a separate item. I have seen teams choose many different side trips.

While we talk about costumes here, there are many other examples that are similar

The difference here is that as the scope of the side trip is broadened, the appraiser has to look at more items to give the score. If some items in the group are not as creative or well made as others, then the score might be less because the appraiser would have to take into account all of the items. If one costume is truly creative and well made, it might be better to choose that one costume instead of choosing all costumes. If all of the costumes are creative and well made than the team might score better.

Again, we are looking at whether to choose a narrow or broad definition of the side trip. If the appraiser looks at the backdrop as a whole, there is much to consider in giving the score. Even if the team chooses the entire backdrop, they could still describe the specific aspects of the backdrop that they would like to have scored.

Discuss side trip elements early and often when writing the scripts and making the props, backdrops and costumes. Often the team naturally comes up with side trip ideas as the script and props develop. Side trips are appraised based on both creativity and workmanship. So it is important to ask the team to decide what is creative when they are deciding on the side trips.

Side Trips are free-choice scoring opportunities provided as adjuncts to the main Challenge. They allow a team to have three whatever-they-want opportunities to showcase something they've done and have it evaluated.

To see what is desired, one must look at the scoring, for that is where the rubber meets the road in understanding what a Challenge seeks.

Theoretically, a team will pick three items which are team strengths or for which they have a prodigy team member, and exhibit them. Since they are team-selected areas, the scores should be high--or so a team might hope. (In reality, these are subjective scores, so they tend to be mid-range except in cases of a talent prodigy--and even then, often.

Like with all aspects, definitely help younger kids have realistic expectations to avoid later problems.)

So, with the team...one approach is to look at the Inventory in the Guide and then discuss it with the team: what are your strengths? Where do you think you will shine? Then, with that in mind, they can attack the Challenge.

Another approach is to attack the Challenge and develop the outline of the solution. Then ask the team to see where they have already used their strengths, and where they could embellish and strengthen it.

There are other approaches, and I have no idea which is better. (My guess is that different teams would have different "best" approaches.) Each approach also has risks, don't forget. Let the team discuss these and decide which approach they believe is more fitting for them.

When I train TMs, I encourage them to look at the Side Trips as "free choice" items the TEAM selects because they are particularly proud of what they've accomplished in that element. Naturally, the team must be careful in what they select because there are restrictions against there being "overlap" between the Side Trips and other scored elements. Equally important, the team should carefully specify their Side Trip items in the paperwork they provide to the appraisers to FOCUS the appraiser's attention on the aspects of their solution that demonstrate creativity and workmanship (the two scoring dimensions the appraisers must use to evaluate the Side Trips).

OK, HOW does a team go about developing and/or selecting items for their Side Trips. When I train TMs, I recommend AGAINST treating the Side Trips as a kind of "talent show" -- where the team identifies some skill they have and figures out some way to demonstrate that skill in their performance. Instead, I encourage TMs to treat all the "specialties inventory" junk as a complicated way for teams to understand (and celebrate) that different team members will have different "natural abilities" -- and that these "natural abilities" represent "resources" the team can use in creating their solution. I also encourage TMs to help the team to understand that part of this process is for teams to understand that all team members aren't good at all things -- so the team should be willing to "cut each other some slack" when a member has trouble contributing with some activities.

So, if the Side Trips aren't a "talent show", how should they be selected? I suggest to the TMs I train that during the course of the team creating their solution, the team will find that they develop items they think are "cool" -- even though these items aren't directly scored by the Challenge. I suggest that these "cool items" (that the team becomes "passionate" about, but which are not directly scored) are what the team should refine, embellish and celebrate as their "side trip" items.

This implies that I recommend AGAINST suggesting that the team develop the Side Trips as a "linear process" -- in which the team systematically identifies their specialties, thinks of ways to demonstrate those specialties and then determines ways to fold those demonstrations into their performance. Instead, I suggest using an "evolutionary approach" -- in which the team initiates LOTS of "creative experiments" as part of developing their solution. I recommend that the team periodically step back and evaluate which of those experiments the team think best demonstrate the "creative energies" of their team.

Some time before the team presents their solution at the tournament, the team must pick which of these various "experiments in creativity" represent their "best three". They should then spend a bit of "focused energy" to refines these three items further (keeping in mind that appraisers who see them for the first time will be evaluating them). The team should also spend some time creating a nice, focused description of WHY these items uniquely demonstrate the creativity and workmanship of the team.

In February, I have my team look at what they are most excited about and proud of, and those become the side trips. Extra care was taken the last few days to make sure that the things that they chose were the best that they could be. Last year, Michelle was very excited about the creative way that she made leaves on the backdrop. As a result leaves on the backdrop was exactly what was written down on the paperwork. Another was creative use of accents during the performance. The last was teamwork, emphasizing the way that the team smoothly set up for their performance.

Really, I wouldn't worry about side trips until further down the road. My team has never "created" a side trip, they just happen!

Sometimes Side Trips can add to that overwhelming feeling...isn't the Main Challenge enough?! The intention of Side Trips is to allow each Team to be scored on some items that are of particular interest to their team or are things that show their particular strengths. A lot of the rules regarding Side Trips have to do with making sure the team is not getting 2 scores for the same item...for example the costume that is already being scored as a required element cannot also be scored as a side trip.

The thing to avoid is Side Trips that are tacked on as a display and not integrated into the solution. Rather Side Trips offer and opportunity for the Team to use their strengths or passions in Solving the Challenge. As they develop their Solution see where something might really fit and enhance their Solution.

The Side Trips are a very important scoring element so, don’t ignore them! As you advance from Regional to State to Globals, side trips increase in overall importance as the level of competition increases.

The appraisers NEED your forms to be able to score your solution! What the team writes on those forms WILL impress the appraisers. The appraisers do read every word on your forms (usually more than once).

Be sure your forms are neat and legible. I’ve seen teams type out the parts of the forms that require a lot of writing and then “cut and paste” those typed words onto the forms. That makes it much easier to read for the appraisers.

Be sure you have all the forms you need for your competition—READ THE SPECIFICS OF YOUR CHALLENGE TO BE SURE WHICH FORMS YOU NEED TO BRING WITH YOU.

Complete the forms before the day of competition. Having to complete forms at the last minute will cause unnecessary stress for team members on competition day.

Make two complete sets of forms. Give one to the team member who is the “forms person” (this set is often stored with the props). Have the TM keep the other set with him/her at all times on tournament day as a back up in case the forms are lost.

This is not a scored element but you must have it. Make sure this is done before the day of competition to avoid unnecessary stress for the team on competition day!

Pay attention to the size requirements and the information that is required to be on the sign. Make the sign neat and legible.

I recommend that the TM and one team member selected by the TM go together to pick up the scores from the appraisers. This allows the team to have the perspective of both an adult and a student when the scores are discussed.

Assemble the team before you go to pick up the scores. You only have a limited amount of time after you pick up the scores to ask questions and get any necessary corrections made to the score sheet so, you don’t want to have to chase any of the team members down. Have the team wait in a private location with an adult while you pick up the scores.

In my view, reviewing the score sheet is a matter for the team members and team managers ONLY. I do not allow parents or supporters to participate in this discussion. We read the scores aloud and then let the team members look at the scores and discuss anything they want to cover. Once the discussions are complete we vote to accept the scores or to ask questions.

Only after the team has had a chance to discuss the scores and is comfortable with them do we announce the scores to the parents and supporters. We do not discuss score information in earshot of other participants.

The score sheet you receive at competition for your Team Challenge is a valuable tool for planning for next year. When we get that scoring sheet at Regionals, we go over it with a fine toothed comb. It's one of the best indicators you have of where you can improve ... at the State tournament if you advance, or next year if you don't. (Being a good CPS team manager, I want to point out that I reserve my own opinions until the year is over. But I DO give them my analysis after all competitions are complete.)

Here's what Mr.Webster's states: To compose and perform without preparation; to make or do with whatever is at hand.

The current styles of Improvisation or Improv, are a type of theatre that evolved from techniques used in acting classes. At the time, acting teachers/directors were having a difficult time getting the actors to be spontaneous with their on-stage reactions. One such teacher, Viola Spolin, designed a series of techniques or "games" to facilitate the release of the actors' spontaneity.

Soon these games evolved into a completely separate theatre discipline. Throughout the 50's and 60's improvisational theatre grew in popularity but it was an improv group from Canada called "Theatre Sports" who gave the art form its massive appeal through their unique approach of competitive performances. This particular form of improv migrated to America through a troupe called Comedy Sportz. With the access to improv and the related games ever increasing, many splinter improv troupes formed spreading the fun and excitement of improvisational comedy across the country.

Improv's appeal is that noone knows what's going to happen next - not the audience, not even the performers. The audience stands at the edge of the pool waiting to see if the actors will sink or swimCopyright

Courtesy of “On Stage: Theater Games and Activities for Kids” by Lisa Bany-Winters (Chicago Review Press, $14.95)

In an improv scene, when you are acting, always say no to him. If you partner says “Look at the elephant,” you might say “That’s not an elephant - it’s a rocket ship.”

Now play the same scene with your partner, but say yes this time. Working together in this way will make your scenes more active and much more interesting for your audience to watch. If you always remember to play the yes game, you’ll be a successful improv actor.

First, you never have to ask a yes or no question because you are already playing the yes game. Asking the question just take s up time in your scene and is not active, so instead of saying, “DO you want to go swimming?” - instead say “Let’s go swimming.”

Second, asking questions puts a lot of pressure on your scene partner. For example, if you say, “What is that thing?” you force your partner to make up what it is. It’s better to say “Look at that lion.” and then your partner can talk about the lion to further the scene and move it along.

Don’t talk about things that have happened in the past (talk about what you did yesterday) or the future (talk about what you will do tomorrow). Instead of talking about going to the mall, go there. Instead of talking about something you used to do, so something now. Also remember to play the yes game and don’t ask questions. Most scenes that are in the present have more action and active scenes are more interesting than scenes where the characters stand around and only talk.

Practice acting out the following scenes ? Use either Pantomime or Improvisation:

Go to NY DI’s website at http://nydi.org/createic.htm "Create Your Own Instant Challenges and Improvs". You can print out this wonderful tool that will assist you in creating an infinite number of practice challenges and situations for your teams.

Most of these will be easy to get but the idea here is to have them practice humorous elaboration. If you have to pantomime the banana, make a big to-do about selecting just the right one from the bunch on the tree, peeling it and discovering it has a bad spot, starting over with a new one and - finally - eating it ... then as you start to leave the stage and everyone thinks you're done, you slip on the imaginary banana peel you threw on the floor!

Question: I have a group of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders who are doing the Dynamic Improv challenge. They are having a very difficult time stretching their presentations to 6 minutes. In fact, we're lucky to get about 1-1/2. Any suggestions?

Instant Challenge - finding the easy points

Impress on the kids the importance of reading instructions and evaluating where the points can most easily be scored - BEFORE settling on a approach.

To emphasize that, I started by using a “launching” hands-on type, multi-part instant challenge (where the team had to develop launchers and launched items and then launch them for accuracy). However, I had the creativity of the launchers and launched items as an item scored for creativity and teamwork. The challenge emphasized that this scoring element had nothing to do with how effective the launchers were - so the emphasis was on “out in left field” solutions. However, at least one of the launchers that were scored had to be used to launch projectiles. I also asked the team to present a story as they launched their projectiles for score. I purposely selected fairly “bogus”materials to offer the teams to build their launchers - to encourage teams to focus their energy on things other than the launching aspect.

After the team finished solving the challenge, I spent a bit of time asking the team to talk through the decisions they made, their decision-making process and what they might do differently next time. My goal is for the team to appreciate (and celebrate) the things they did well in solving the challenge, but also to learn those areas where there was room for improvement.

My goal for this challenge was to encourage teams to thoroughly think through were there were easy points and to spend some time on these points. Because, even though there were more points given for creative launchers and creative storyline and the bogus supplies made it virtually impossible to earn launching points, they focused most of their energy on launching instead of the easy points.

Instant Challenge - more tips

It is important for teams to ask questions and make sure the challenge is clear.

Many teams have teams divided into different “roles” for different IC problems. Your team might designate a student that is good at reading and comprehension to read and re-read the challenge and make sure that it is understood. Another might take the lead in hands-on or technical challenges. Another should be a time keeper - this is an important role and must be given to someone who will actually look at his or her watch once time begins. One might be in charge ofbest use of and dispensing materials. And roles might change depending on the type of challenge.

Use IC as a way of brainstorming for ideas for their main challenge.

We teach our team that everyone can find a way to contribute. I think it takes some creativity to involve all 7 team members effectively in any type of problem – but our kids have even been furniture at times!

During IC, one team has a particular member watch over the teamwork aspect of what they are doing. Is everyone being heard? Are decisions getting made? She is good at noticing those things.

We instituted some rules during IC –

don’t talk over each other

have a beginning, middle and end for each problem

Have a terrific ending

watch the time

Through these rules and increased practice, they began to recognize their individual strengths and began to dwell as a team. They learned to anticipate each other, to depend on each other and to trust each other. They learned to set goals.

As time went on, the kids realized that they needed to

-learn specific skills and to help them manage their time more effectively

-make sure they were dealing with every aspect of the problem

-be sure all the creative elements they knew were considered

-they developed jobs for each person including a problem-reader, problem captain, anda timekeeper.

Their performance became more structured but also more creative. Once they weren’t sweating the structural elements of problem, they could concentrate on including really creative solutions.

Practice, practice, practice. But practice with a purpose - with an eye toward developing specific skills and with specific goals in mind that made the difference for them.

Before I began to manage teams, I hated IC. Year after year, my daughters’ teams would come in first or second in the long-term portion of the competition, but a low Spontaneous score would drop them back to the middle of the pack. If you had asked me about it back then, I would have been in favor of dropping it entirely, or at least making it a separate competition. When I became a team manager, I discovered that IC is a wonderful way to encourage kids to learn new skills. Now I wouldn’t want to give it up.

Some team members are very interested in acting and performing. When they decide to join a DI team, it’s because they want the opportunity to perform before an audience. When you have a team that is made up entirely of kids who just want to perform, it can be very difficult to get them to pay any attention to the technical aspects of their team challenge. One way to encourage such a team to broaden their horizons is to give them some technical IC challenges early in the year.

These IC practice sessions often lead to a discussion of basic construction techniques and engineering principles. When you build a bridge out of marshmallows and toothpicks, is it better to use rectangles or triangles? How should you orient corrugated cardboard to achieve maximum strength? This knowledge can be very helpful to a team later on, when they begin to construct their props and their Technical Elements.

I’ve also had team members who have told me that they HATED to perform, didn’t want to be part of the skit, and just wanted to build things. Some of the same kids later discovered that they actually enjoy verbal improv, once they gave it a try when I had the team practice a performance-type challenge. I remember one kid who became the team’s star performer in all verbal challenges, even though he never did want to perform in front of a crowd.

I believe that the most valuable part of IC is the preparation. Our existing design forces teams to be ready for many different types of challenges.

Instant Challenge – tips from a successful team member

On the topic of IC training... My team and the other teams from my school are trying to convince our team manager to "write the book" on IC training. Now most of you are saying, well this is from a team member, how good can it be? The past 3 years we have never scored below 90 (weighted) at any competition. That includes 8 appearances at regionals,4 appearances at state (in Texas no less) and 1 worlds team. Furthermore, the teams that attended the training that she hosted monthly in our region scored in the top 3 in IC even though they were all "newbies." At regionals this year, 2 team DaVinci’s in IC on teams with a majority of people who had never done any creative problem solving before.

Some things that I have learned to consider:

-IC is worth as much as the side trips.

-IC is worth 1/2as much as the WHOLE central challenge.

-We typically spend 1 hr per week on IC (secondary team).

-If a team thinks a IC is too easy, make it harder (the blindfolded nonverbal communication withitems was pushing it (3 two foot by 2 foot 5x5 grids and we had to place cups with items in the proper square in the proper place using only the sound of the communication items. There were 12 different items in the cups)

-Practice a wide variety of ICs. Never say "oh they will never get a problem like that at competition."

-Have them analyze the problem after they finish. What could they have done to get more points.

-TEAMWORK- If you don’t have a team that works good together, how can they LOOK like they are working well together?

-Everyone has something to contribute to every IC. ( I am willing to defend this point against anyone.) Rules can be re-read. Time can be kept. Even if it is as simple as saying "are we getting the points" every 30 seconds of think time.

-THERE IS NEVER ARIGHT WAY AND A WRONG WAY.

-Some ways just get more points than others.

-Pay attention to who plays off of each other. It could be very different from Central Challenge.

-Order is important. (1,2,3,4 and keeping things focused)

Instant Challenge Help from a Successful IC Team –What Appraisers Want…

It's hard to tell what appraisers are looking for in a specific challenge, but generally I think they look for kids who are well organized, and creative, and who really like each other enough to work happily and enthusiastically together. Beyond that they look for highly creative solutions and attention to the rules and scoring of the challenge.

Unlike many TM's, I love IC. It's really all I do with my kids because I have a terrific co-TM who does the rest. I'm sure some teams are just naturally great at IC, but mine never was. It was something they learned bit by bit and made into a kind of formula. Once they had a loose structure for how they wanted to do it they could incorporate some of their very creative stuff. But until they did that they just spun their wheels because they never seemed to really get anywhere.

I'm not sure I have the magic formula, but my kids have made pretty dramatic improvements in this area over the past three years (took first at recent Regional competition and second at Global last year). Here are some of the things they have learned over time and that I remind them of every practice:

1. Show evidence of working together effectively. This means several things: Don't talk over each other. Everybody gets a chance to add their very brief input. Cooperate. Make a collaborative decision but if that isn't possible assign somebody in advance to make it for you so you don't waste time, and the appraisers' good opinion, arguing over the solution.

2. Be organized and show evidence of it. Assign jobs (problem reader, timer, character developer, problem captain) in advance, use them during the competition and make them apparent.

3. Read the challenge, read the challenge, read the challenge. Make it somebody's job and have them do it more than once. They can remind the team of the parts of the challenge where they will be scored. A low score can simply mean the kids left out some crucial part.

4. Brainstorm --a lot and quickly. Quality comes from quantity in this instance.

5. Add humor, music, poetry, dance --- whatever is creative that you do best. Appraisers love it and it makes the whole solution that much more interesting.

6. Practice, practice, practice -- lots and lots of improv where they don't even get appraised, specific challenges that address their strengths and weaknesses, and very formal appraised challenges. Do it all and do it often. Encourage them to use the most creative bits from Improv to their solutions.

7. Develop a "bag of tricks" of situations, scenarios and skills that they can pull up at a moment's notice.

8. Teach them to relax and to put on their creative thinking caps -- then do it with them prior to going into IC. We do all kinds of funny physical stuff to get them relaxed and brainstorming to get their brains moving.

9. Our rule is: Beginning, middle and absolutely BOFFO ending! Every time and on time. If they run out of time the appraisers will never see that great ending so teach them to keep track of the time.

I usually pick only one or two things to work on at each meeting. At subsequent practices they learn to incorporate each piece into their work. I try to keep a list handy, boiled down to a key phrase for each element.

MORE IC Judging Tips

I appraised this year for the first time, so I don't know how representative my comments are but here goes:

We did have a 'creative use of materials' category in our challenge. I looked for the following:

1) Use of the materials in a way that was unexpected and got the job done.

2) Craftsmanship- does it look sturdy, well constructed, aesthetically pleasing? Usually, these things end up looking pretty bad, so extra points for ones that look good.

3) Use of all of the materials (even if for decoration, but better if actually functional).

What I really looked for here was something beyond the 'first thing that pops into your mind' when you look at the materials and decide what to do with them. On the challenge I appraised, there was a certain piece of material that every team used in exactly the same way. We appraisers had also used the same material in the same way on our feeble attempt at the IC before the competitions started. After about the third team did that I wondered about it and thought of totally different way to accomplish the desired result (can't claim to be smarter than the kids, since it took me well over the time limit to come up with it). Anyway I thought, "if anyone does that, it will be great".

Well, one kid on one team actually thought of it later on and the other team members shot him down because the solution they were working on was a little easier to visualize (although more difficult to implement). If they had gone with it, they would have been the only team to use the materials in that way and, assuming they got it to work, they would have gotten a great score. (They didn't do bad as it was).

It seems to me that there can be a bit of tension between getting things to work and using materials creatively. The really good solution uses materials creatively to do something that is simpler and more reliable than what you might otherwise think of.

Instant Challenge – a Proposed Rubrics for Scoring

I went back through my files and dug this rubric up for those of you trying to figure out how to evaluate instant challenges. I know it's not your scores, but perhaps it will help! If you were to score your own team right after watching them perform, your evaluation might not be that different from what the actual evaluators gave them.

Instant Challenge - tips from a appraiser

Sometimes I’ve seen teams give “themed” responses - everyone on the team will answer using items related to current events, or movies or music, or everyone on the team will use a funny voices, accents or motion. In some ways this theme thing is not necessarily a bad idea - but in order to be effective, everyone on the team must KNOW the topic well enough to improvise using only that topic as a basis...for example, I once had the opportunity to see a team using current events as their “theme”. While the answers, in and of themselves, were not necessarily creative, the overall solution the team came up with did impress the appraisers for the sheer magnitude of current events this team was able to tie in and use - some substantial newspaper/periodical/tv news research had to have occurred. I have also seen this approach back-fire on a team...for example, I saw a team use the “accents” thing and the appraisers were constantly stopping them and asking them to repeat a response because they didn’t understand what was said - the first thing the appraisers said when the team left the room was “what the heck was that all about?”

I have found that in practice it sometimes helps to offer a challenge and require that the kids solve it using a particular theme: for example - We are familiar with the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Your challenge is for your team to reenact that story creatively. Your solution will use “The Old West” as the backdrop for your re-enactment. All of the characters in your solution should be consistent with that time and place in history.

Or simply ask them to create a 4-minute skit based on the following: Cinderella, but she’s a 17-year-old girl today and the ball is really the high school prom. Now do the same thing, but Cinderella is a 17-year-old girl in 1965. And again with Cinderella in 1925.

Basically what all these challenges require is some understanding and appreciation for a period in history and its culture. Often by narrowing the challenge in that way in practice, a team will get the idea that they can use that as a strategy to employ in a real IC at a tournament. With the emphasis on the new challenges more on teamwork, teams must learn many strategies to quickly come up with a solution that requires everyone’s participation. If you have a team where all the kids love and have a good solid knowledge base of science, encourage them to try to utilize that base whenever possible to solve a challenge. When you ask kids to do that, even kids that are not comfortable performing are able to contribute to the solution with information - and that’s what teamwork is really about!

Teamwork Scoring for IC

APPRAISER: I spent a good part of my day judging IC yesterday and out of 10 teams all but one team huddled very, very quietly and whispered and protected their "think time process". An IC Judging team CANNOT award good Teamwork scores if they can hear and see the process. The Team was awarded the most points was the team we could hear and see the process they went through to arrive at their solution. In my opinion, the 20 points normally allowed for Teamwork should be automatic. LEADERSHIP HAS TO BE OBSERVABLE TO SCORE!!!

RESPONSE 1: From a TM -- I disagree quite strongly with this. To be scored highly on teamwork you have to talk loudly so that the IC appraisers can hear your thinking process from afar? This is bad advice to give team members or IC appraisers. IC appraisers should be able to appraise exemplary teamwork from non-verbal behavior, or should move so they can eavesdrop unobtrusively.

RESPONSE 2: From a TM - I'm glad that someone else felt this way, too! I watched my team at the tournament on Saturday. They started out with their heads together ata table, nearly whispering. They were relaxed, worked very well together, and laughed quite a few times during their planning time. The appraisers said, "You don't have to whisper", but didn't specifically request that they speak up. They said about two sentences in a louder voice, then back to whispering. I had to resist the urge to say, "They're not really this quiet, I swear!" When I thought about it, though, I realized that the only time they ARE quiet during meetings is during their planning time in IC. It just seems to be the natural way this team works. We took second in IC, so I'm not complaining. They did a good job, but I can't say it was their very best work. However, I'd hate to think they lost points for their style of teamwork. If volume is a required element, it should be stated as such.

FROM ANOTHER APPRAISER: was an IC Appraiser at Wisconsin's State Comp. this past weekend. We DID have a rubric to follow, as did the Challenge Appraiser's. It came in hand... especially for some of the newer IC Appraisers.

As an IC Appraiser... you don't really go over what score you gave a team, you discuss what you saw or heard in the presentation. That way all appraiser's are scoring the same elements. Some IC are very complex giving the Appraisers many things to look at. It had been suggested by some IC Challenge Master's to break the challenge scoring up for different appraiser's to score, as some of the long term appraiser's do. I told my IC Appraising team that we would not spilt up who scored what... my reasoning... how fair is that to the teams... the IC appraiser's scores are averaged. How fair of an average do you receive, especially with only three appraisers. So, we each scored all items...12 total. We also took the time to write down what we saw and/or heard so that if there was ever any questions on why one team got points higher for a reply that was similar to another team's reply we had reason for justification. My appraising team also gave out stickies for IC. Which created a new challenge for the score room... not knowing what to place them on. Oh, well, what is a tournament without any complications from all areas right?

As for a deduction in IC. There are only a couple of reasons an IC appraiser would give deductions: 1) If the team has a challenge that does not allow them to do something. Example: a non-verbal presentation and they speak, touching something they are not allowed to touch, or going outside of a perimeter given.; 2)Unsportsmanlike conduct towards other teams, their team members, or appraisers. If they talk about their challenge outside of the IC room with anyone other than those who were in the room they are disqualified for the tournament. And they know that at the beginning of each IC because there's a pledge they have to say. 3) If the TM or non-participating team members give assistance.

How can you really fix something in IC you ask? Well, you practice.... there are some many different avenues a TM can take to help their team for IC. This year alone there were many websites with creative ideas for IC's being shared. There are also a lot of games....Scattegories, Guesstures, Outburst to name just a few. My team's favorite IC have come from a book I have had for a long time... 100 Inside Games.

FIRST APPRAISER -- CLARIFICATION OF HIS POINT: I wanted to make sure I communicated clearly on my first posting. My point was NOT just based on a Teams volume .... My point is that if you look at the rubric for Team-Work it requires that that we are aware of the dynamics of the interpersonal working of the Team ... Logic says a Team who, in a reasonable tone, allows the Appraisers to hear and see these dynamics will get the higher scores ... Teams who whisper and hide this process will tend to achieve lower scores. You may be able to "interpret" body language and facial expressions to give good scores, but the best scores will go to Teams who clearly demonstrate to the Appraisers that they are brainstorming, tracking time, involved as a Team and working towards a solution.

RESPONSE 3: Just my opinion..... I think teams should not have to speak loudly during the developmental process in the IC. I agree the appraisers should move closer to the team quietly to observe them or sit quietly at the table if they would like to evaluate the process. Any observer can tell if a team is not getting along or arguing, even if they are quiet. I think it is ridiculous to say a team did not show good teamwork simply because they did not speak loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear them - give me a break. Now we have to retrain our teams to speak loudly not only in their performances, but thinking process!

FROM ANOTHER APPRAISER: I know it is a concern that teams might not be loud but still have great teamwork. There are many teams that work this way and do great. And team managers who know this about their team will probably then be confused by the teamwork scores. The difference between team managers and appraisers, however, is that appraisers don't know this about the team and the teamwork has to be demonstrated for them to score it. Many appraisers do get up to get closer, but it has been my experience that when teams huddle it is hard to get close enough to hear them even if you're less than a couple of feet away.

I don't think that it is necessary to retrain kids - it is probably harder to retrain adults. Usually, when training the more quiet teams, all you have to do is to tell them that it is important to speak up -most kids are so eager to do well that it isn't that big of a problem and they'll catch on early.

ONE LAST APPRAISER: I've been reading closely as the various points have been made about speaking up as compared to whispering during the planning stages of IC. I agree that it is important for the appraisers to have some idea of how the team works together during its planning. Insisting that a team speak up, however ,isn't necessarily the answer. Having appraised for several years, and served as regional and assistant state challenge master, I do encourage my appraisers to not sit, but rather walk around during the planning and presentation of the solution. I don't care if the team is loud or not.....if the appraisers are on their feet and listening, it is usually possible to tell how well the team is working together. When they look at me, I just smile a friendly smile and keep on listening. I've never appraised a team yet that could get so quiet that I couldn't hear what was taking place!

Presentation Tools

Performance-Based Instant Challenges usually have 20+ points on Creativity of the Presentation. Therefore, a Team should understand and be able to use basic Presentation Techniques. Simple Presentation Techniques will measurably add to the Creativity of the Presentation.

Types of Presentation Tools

Characterizations
Improv
Mime
Body Language - Exaggeration
Stage Presence
Voice Manipulation
Story Development
- Beginning - Initial Situation
- Middle - Conflict/Problem
- Ending - Resolution/Solution to the Problem
Manipulation of Materials
Creation of Props, Costumes, etc.
Other Theatrical Elements
- Staging
- Music
- Special Effects

Characterization

Characterization is the ability to project an idea, a setting, and/or a character. It is one of the main methods used is Improvisation (or Improv).

Mime

Mime (short for Pantomime) is Improv without speech.

Body Language

Exaggerated Movement
Expression Attitude and/or Emotions
Acting to something and/or Reacting to something

Stage Presence

Are you believable?
Are you projecting?
Are you in character?
Displaying Age
Displaying Mood
Can the person be heard?
Can the person be understood?

Voice

Emotion
Accents
Voice Tone

Story Development

Initial Situation - Beginning
Did the group give the details of the situation?
Conflict - Middle
Were there complications and suspense?
Were there obstacles?
Conclusion - Resolution of Conflict - Ending
Was the conflict resolved?

Manipulation of Materials

With Props
Team-Created Props
Imaginary Props
Props are a major part of Performance-Based IC's.

SCAMPER is one of the best CPS tools to obtain Creative uses of Props!

What Prop can be Substituted for something else?
What can you Combine?
What can you Adapt?
What can you make Bigger, Smaller, Modify in some way?
What can you Put to other uses?
What parts of a Prop can you Eliminate?
What Props can you Reverse or Rearrange?

Taking a Prop apart - VERBALLY - works well also. A good example would be a telephone. What parts could you use separately to solve the Challenge - e.g. the buttons, the cord, the wires inside, the outside case, the holes in the case where the buttons go, etc. Ask for other ideas from the participants.

Sometimes the Team is given only blank sheets of paper, a scissors and markers. They are asked to create their own props. Have the participants discuss what ways they could use those materials.

And - what about Imaginary Props. A Team can be given a list of props, but be asked to just imagine that they are there. They are then asked to use those Imaginary Props and display their uses in their solution. Discuss with the participants what Presentation Skills would be useful in creating a good presentation.

Creation of Props, Costumes, etc.

When a Team gets a "With Props" Presentation-Based IC, they need to allocate their time between idea generation and prop/costume generation. Time Management is important here. Also see the Manipulation of Materials Section above.

Other Theatrical Elements

Staging
Use of Music
Special Effects

Staging

A Team Member should not have his/her back to the audience
Center-Front is an excellent place for action versus the back of the area
Entering and Exiting should be done with emphasis
If more than one person is involved in the scene - someone should be acting and the rest reacting
The person speaking should be moving, the other's should be still (unless movement is part of the story)
A person should start to move, just before he/she starts to speak. That will draw the audience's eyes to that person.
Cross behind another person instead of crossing in front
Music, Sound, and Special Effects

These are "attention getters." They help keep the audience interested in what the Team is doing.

A Challenge to DI for!

Use this challenge to illustrate the points covered above

Materials: Have each participant, place a single item of the participant's choosing in the middle of their table.

Procedure: Instruct the team members: Your team must reconstruct the key facts of the murder using the evidence. Four of the pieces of evidence provide the following information:

ONE ITEM was the MURDER WEAPON

ONE ITEM reveals the OCCUPATION OF THE KILLER

ONE ITEM reveals the OCCUPATION OF THE VICTIM

ONE ITEM reveals the MOTIVE.

Your team has 5 minutes to reconstruct the crime story.
When the five minutes has elapsed, instruct teams to stop.
Ask them to dramatically present their solution to the mystery to the rest of the group. Any number of team members may take part. Remind them to be brief but entertaining.
Debriefing questions:
- Consistency - Could you tell what the team was doing?
- Exaggerated Resistance - Did they exaggerate their movements?
- Story Line - Did they have a beginning, middle, and ending?
- Exaggerated Conflict/Problem - Did they display emotions - with exaggeration?
- Did they use their props creativity?
- Discuss how they came up with their story - within 5 minutes? What process did they go through.
More IC Tips-Job Descriptions

I know that preparing for ICs is something nobody can take for granted, so let me tell you a few things that other, wiser and more experienced, folks have told me and see what works for your team. I want to stress that hardly any of these are my ideas, almost everything is built off of what others have told me worked. Not every tip is going to work for every group of kids; depending on the group dynamics, but try to follow your own hunches. It is important that every role is seen as "equal" in terms of value; each is a part needed to get the job done.

At the moment, I think that successful ICs have more to do with teamwork than just thinking creatively (although that certainly helps.) With a young team, try to come up with different "roles" or jobs for each to have responsibility in the IC. My preference is NOT to assign these roles, but to describe them and ask who in the group thinks he/she 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 fall into anything that is 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.

Examples of roles might be:

1. The rule person. This person reads the IC (if on paper) and throughout the solving is the person who refers back to the written challenge to be sure they are solving as directed and following rules. Many an IC 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. [for 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, esp. 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 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, or whatever is appropriate. [sometimes, when the timekeeper isn't paying attention at IC practice, I let the time run out and call TIME!... then I allow another minute to finish and remind the timekeeper of the important duty. If you keep calling out the time, the timekeeper doesn't get in the habit of checking time.] You can always use TWO of these timekeepers.

4. The laugh meters. 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.

5. The idea/teamwork facilitator. Hmmmm. need a kid-friendly word here, but can't think of what I called it before! Anyway, 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. Maybe we called it the brainstormer? Anyway, 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.

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?" and the 2nd "what if?" person says "what if it was an ANT farm?" and so on...]

IC Tips-Keep it Moving

RULE OF THREE. If your team (like one of mine did) tends to keep going on suggesting new and better ideas long after they should have chosen something and started solving or writing the skit; give them a rule of three. That is, for the first decision, listen to 1,2,3 ideas and the fourth person takes one of those 3ideas and adds on to it. (They don't have to go 1, 2, 3 in order in a circle; it's whoever had the first three ideas. Then time to chose one, add to it and move on.) It's fine to have all 7 kids make suggestions if they do quickly and make decisions they live with, but the Rule of Three helps with a team wherein each child loves only his/her own ideas and therefore keeps making suggestions.

ACT THE PART. After the first couple practices, I run almost all my ICs as though it is REALLY competition. In other words, the clock is really ticking, & I introduce them like a team is introduced, & I talk to them as I imagine an appraiser (of course, a kind, gentle, welcoming appraiser) would talk to them. I answer questions that I think an appraiser would answer and I direct them to the written paper if I think the correct answer is "what does the challenge say? if it doesn't say you can't, then you can."

CODE WORDS aka Getting Stuck. My teams have always come up with special words for a couple uses. One is that each team member has a special word phrase to use if they are absolutely stuck for ideas. [I think they wrote down some silly words and then randomly pulled them out to create each kid's phrase.] I can recall "stinky yellow toe-jam" and "alien purple tomatoes." When a kid got stuck, REALLY stuck for an answer, he would say "stinky yellow toe-jam" or some part of his special phrase, so the team could go on. It rarely got used in competition, but it was a secret weapon for kids to know they would always have at least one answer, no matter what. Sort of a silly safety net. [hint: you have to ask them to say it once every meeting, or they will forget it! At some point, say "code word?" and the first kid to say his special phrase gets an M&M or whatever.]

Part two==Team code word: this is a catch-all phrase to politely remind team members when they are getting off track in an IC. It can mean they are off the focus of the challenge, or they are stuck in a rut, or they are starting to argue. When a team member cheerfully offers this phrase, it is a code word for "Okay, let's move on, we are wasting time." The team I helped at Globals chose "Got Milk?" as their catch phrase. That's a hoot in itself. So when they are in the thinking/planning stage and two girls are getting testy with not giving in to each other's ideas, a third girl pops in with "got milk?" and it's a mental clue that they have lost focus in solving the challenge.

REPETITION. Another tip folks keep reminding me is that it is OKAY to do the same IC practices again - whether they were a little shaky and need improvement, or whether they are wonderful and can't imagine doing that one better. Tell them to do it again, but must be different than the last time they did it.

EVALUATION. After each practice, create a non-threatening evaluation and creative criticism session. Say, "you made me laugh when..." and "I liked it when..." and "could you think of anything else you might have done?" "what was your favorite part of the solution?" and "how would you do the challenge if you didn't have [item]?" ... ask probing questions and give lots of strokes. Encourage them to prompt &encourage each other and if they get on a good idea right then, ask them to do the IC again with the good idea in mind.

VARIETY. When you practice ICs, try to alternate types, such as performance, hands-on, verbal, hybrid, so they are ready with anything. AND ,you CAN participate in these - it's NOT interference. Feedback on ICs isn't interference either, so have some fun. If they need a little shake-up, participate and be as silly and creative as you want your team to be and see where it goes. I often participate in the pass-around warm-ups (passing around an item, such as a cup, a pipe cleaner, a washcloth, a banana, a sponge, a shoe... whatever) and using it in an impromptu manner. Since you know what the item is, you have a head start at wacky answers, so give yourself a little think time and be especially clever to impress the tykes.

SKIT-DEVELOPMENT. One thing I have done that has really helped our kids work well under pressure is to have them practice, totally apart from any formal IC problem, creating a beginning, a middle and an end of a story/skit. I have lots of cards with odd phrases, character traits, items, a short scenario, etc.. on them. I break the kids up into two groups of three each, give each group a few cares with different elements on them and have them go off for just a few minutes and then report back with a short skit incorporating all the items. The skit must include a beginning, a middle and an end (as my kids say a "Boffo!!" ending).

These short skits have become the building blocks of their IC performances. They learn how to work together in small groups, working quickly and incorporating a variety of elements.

IMPROV. I would also recommend doing a lot of improvisational games. They learn to think quickly (or what to do if they aren't particularly fast thinkers), to create interesting characters, and how to move their bodies around in interesting and humorous ways. There are many online sites that have

improv games on them -- we've gotten almost all our ideas for improv from those sites.

Crafting an Instant Challenge Game Plan: Analysis of the Challenge

1. Determining the Focus of the Challenge This should ALWAYS be Step 1.

What is the Challenge?

What is the Team really supposed to be doing?

2. Analysis of Scoring Areas, including Rubrics

Where are the points?

They should not spend time on areas where there are no points.

3. Analysis of Materials provided

A Team should first look at the Materials, BEFORE starting to work with them.

What Materials were they given?

How might we use SCAMPER to best utilize the Materials?

Can they be altered or not?

4. Time Management

A Team Member should always be assigned to "Time"

A Team should use x minute(s) for idea generation and x minutes for building and/or performing

5. Teamwork

There are many excellent suggestions on Teamwork in the Team Manager Guide

Teamwork is always worth a minimum of 20 points - 20%of the total score.

Teams need practice at developing:

Trust in each other

Sharing

Acceptance of ideas of others

Cooperation

Exemplary team dynamics

Respect for each others ideas

The Performance-Based IC Ideas Check List

This is a listing of the various CPS tools a Team can potentially use to solve an Instant Challenge .

What Type of Performance-Based IC is it?

What is the Focus of the Challenge - What are they asking the Team to do?

What CPS Tools can potentially be used?

Brainstorming (a given)

SCAMPER

Categories/Environments

What Presentation Tools can potentially be used:

Characterizations: Improv, Mime, Body Language, Stage Presence, Voice Alteration

Story Line Development (Environment)

Theatrical Elements: Staging, Music, Special Effects

Another CPS Tool - Properties of Materials

Extenders

Items with rigidity, strength, length

Items that attach things together - e.g. adhesives, sticky substances, tooth picks

Controls

Items that can contain, confine, control round and/or light-weight items

Redefinition of Physical Items

Most items have more than one function.

If you are trying to get a box off a high shelf, you might use a pen or a ruler to Extend your arm. This is just one example of using an item for a use other than originally intended.

The biggest factor in Task-Based IC is the ability to forget an item's usual function and look at it instead as an Extender, a Connector, or a Controller. What alternate use or function can it perform???

Properties of Materials

Pick items off the Properties of Materials listing on the next page and do a small demo.

Extenders/Connector Combinations

Two clear straws stuck together, one inside the other will cover distances of >12"

A straw stuck into a gum drop, a piece of clay and/or a marshmallow will stand erect to build a tower.

Place toothpicks in clay (or a large gum drop) and then place a straw over the toothpicks. This makes for a much more rigid extender and/or support (the toothpicks are acting as "rebar", just like when they build the pillars on a bridge).

Place spaghetti inside a straw. This will also make a much more rigid extender and/or support. This is similar to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco - it not only has rigid supports but also has large cables stabilizing it. Inside the large cable are many, many smaller cables. When like items are "bound" together they provide a much more rigid item.

Paper

Paper is one of the most versatile items in Instant Challenge.

If you would like to Extend paper, just cut/tear it back and forth and it becomes many times its own original length. If you cut/tear it round and round, vesus back and forth, it will not only be longer but will not tear as readily as it does not have straight lines to tear along.

Columns

Columns are one of the strongest supports in the world.

A Demo to prove this -
Have one table fold a crisp piece of paper into four parts - long ways.
Have a second table fold a crisp piece of paper into three parts - long ways.
Have a third table roll their piece of paper into a column.
Have each table carefully seal the raw long-ways edges together to keep the shape of the item.
lace a box of large paper clips on top of the square, the triangle, and then the column.
Then place a 1# box of nails on top of each one of them one at a time.
The square will collapse first, and then the triangle, and then the column.
It will take approximately 4# of nails to collapse the column.
If you have time, take an envelope and secure it into a column with either 3 toothpicks or labels.
This column will hold approximately 7# of nails (or use books for weights instead).

Envelopes/Index Cards/Etc.
Envelopes are also very versatile - They can Extend by tearing them open, serve as a Connector with the adhesive, and serve as a Controller by placing a round and/or light-weight object inside it.
Index cards make excellent extenders and controllers (as sides of a building). If you tear them in half and wrap them around straws, they act like the outside wrappings of a cable.
Wire hangers can betaken apart and used in many ways.

Putting it all together Mini Challenge
Your Challenge is to place ping pong balls through a 8" hanging hoop, 5 feet away, using only the materials provided. Your body cannot cross the line.
Materials given: A yard stick, a 3'dowel, 12 labels,24" string, 5 sheets of paper, 1 envelope, and 2 rubber bands.
Let's use the Ideas Check Lists to see if we can solve the Challenge.
Is the Challenge Performance-Based or Task-Based? = Task-Based
It is a To Move type of Challenge = You have to move the ping pong balls across a space
Now ask yourself - WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE?
It is to EXTEND across a space and place the balls through the hoop.
Look at your materials- What do you have to EXTEND across the space?
Extenders include a yardstick and a dowel.
You now have items capable of extending across the space but they need to be CONNECTED.
Look at your materials- What do you have to CONNECT the two EXTENDERS together?
Connectors include the string and the labels. Choose one, but be aware you will also have to connect something else to the end of the yard stick/dowel extender in order to CONTROL the balls.
Look at your materials- What do you have to CONTROL the balls with so you can get them into the hoop?
You have paper and you have an envelope to CONTAIN/CONTROL the balls.
What do you have left to do to accomplish the task?
Decide which CONTROLLER you would like to use, the envelope or the paper
Decide how you want to CONNECT the CONTROLLER to the EXTENDER.
Various CONTROLLERS to could be made:
Make a pocket out of the envelope and attach it to the EXTENDER.
Make a column out of apiece of paper, CONNECT it together, and then CONNECT it to the EXTENDER.
Take a look at what you did -

You stopped looking at the yard stick, the dowel, the envelope, the paper, the labels, etc. for their original definition and you refined those definitions into basic functions.

Properties of Materials

Alternative Uses of Materials & Functions of Materials

SCAMPER Sub-Components - Substitute, Adapt, Put to Other Uses

Extenders/Structural/Infra-Structure

Yard sticks Rulers Dowels

Paper Paper Clips Paper Plates

Index Cards Straws Spaghetti

Pipe Cleaners Styrofoam Cups Pencils

Envelopes Paper Tubes Etc.

Connectors/Adhesives

Mailing Labels Clay Rubber Bands

Paper Clips Gum Drops Pipe Cleaners

Envelope Glue Tape Marshmallows

Tooth Picks String Pasta

Paper Tubes Yarn Etc.

Controllers/Holders/Transporting Items

Envelopes Cups Toothpicks

Lunch Bags Tubes Balloons

Paper Aluminum Foil Straws

Paper Plates Spoons Cotton Balls

Clay Etc.

Designed and Written by Rosemary Bognar

Task-Based Instant Challenges

Task-Based: A task-based Challenge requires the team to use materials to communicate or to build, move, change or protect objects. Teams may be scored on how well they work together to design the solution and the creativity of their final project. Team members may also receive points for accomplishing a task. Team members may or may not be allowed to talk during this type of Challenge.
Task-Based Instant Challenges primary emphasis is on completing Tasks.

Types of Task-Based Instant Challenges

To Communicate

To communicate a task from one person to another, without speaking
You need to again ask yourself - What is your Challenge?
It is to communicate "something".
If the Team builds a Communication System to help them, they will be able to communicate whatever they need.
A Team should practice communicating different types of "somethings"
- Colors
- Locations
- Sizes
- Which person is to do something
They can make up little mini Challenges asking them to communicate different sets of information.

To Build

To Build Challenges usually build up (and possibly hold weight), out, and as long as possible.
To Build Challenges respond well to both SCAMPER and Properties of Materials CPS Tools.
- A team should try different mini Challenges
- Build a tower as tall as possible
- Build a bridge across a 12" span
- Build an object as long as possible
The Team can do each one several times, just by picking out different Extenders, Connectors, and Controllers

To Move

To Move Challenges involve "moving something" from one place to another.
It could be a ball, a piece of paper, anything.
To Move Challenges respond well to both SCAMPER and Properties of Materials CPS Tools.

To Protect

To Protect Challenges involve protecting something - an egg, a ping pong ball, a structure, etc.
To Protect Challenges respond well to both SCAMPER and Properties of Materials CPS Tools.

To Change

To Change Challenges involve changing something into something else, using given materials.
To Protect Challenges respond well to both SCAMPER and Properties of Materials CPS Tools.

Combinations of the Above

Many Task-Based IC's are combinations of the above.
However, the same principles of SCAMPER and Properties of Materials would apply.
What can the Team Substitute, Adapt, or Put to Other Uses?
What does the Team have in Materials that can Extend, Connect and Control?
The most important task is to determine What is Your Challenge??
After that, what Materials do you have to accomplish that Challenge??

Crafting a Game Plan: Analysis of the Task-based Challenge

Determining the Focus of the Challenge This should ALWAYS be Step 1.
- What is the Challenge?
- What is the Team really supposed to be doing?
Analysis of Scoring Areas, including Rubrics
- Where are the points?
- They should not spend time on areas where there are no points.
Analysis of Materials provided
- A Team should first look at the Materials, BEFORE starting to work with them.
- What Materials were they given?
- How might we use SCAMPER to best utilize the Materials?
- Can they be altered or not?
Time Management
- A Team Member should always be assigned to "Time"
- A Team should use x minute(s) for idea generation and x minutes for building and/or performing
Teamwork
- Teamwork is always worth a minimum of 20 points - 20% of the total score.
- Teams need practice at developing:
  - Trust in each other
  - Sharing
  - Acceptance of ideas of others
  - Cooperation
  - Exemplary team dynamics
  - Respect for each other's ideas

The Task-Based Ideas Check List

This is a listing of the various CPS tools a Team can potentially use to solve an Instant Challenge.

What Type of Task-Based IC is it?
What is the Focus of the Challenge - What are they asking the Team to do?
What CPS Tools can potentially be used?
- Brainstorming (a given)
- SCAMPER
- Properties of Materials
What Presentation Tools can potentially be used (some Task-Based IC's have a Presentation element):
- Characterizations: Improv, Mime, Body Language, Stage Presence, Voice Alteration
- Story Line Development (Environment)
- Theatrical Elements: Staging, Music, Special Effects

Instant Challenge & Improv Reminders

Speak loudly and clearly
Listen to instructions carefully. Ask questions if the instructions are not clear.
Know where the points are and direct your solution to gaining points.
Listen to your teammates when doing Improv. Relax and go with the flow!
Don't make unnecessary long speeches. Give everyone a chance to add to the solution.
Practice giving everyone a part. Making up a skit where team members play scenery sometimes demonstrates teamwork better than using props or only strong performers.
Practice talking yourself out of a jam when your mind goes blank.
Practice saving a teammate who cannot think of a line or reaction.
Practice using exaggerated movements and expressions.
Make up your own improv games that include different criteria for scoring. Have the team members practice judging.
Never argue with an official or argue with a teammate in front of an official...teamwork is a scored skill!

TIPS TO TEAMS AND TEAM MANAGERS

(Or what they don't tell you in the Rulebook)

Always try to do Instant Challenge practice AFTER you have been fed. Also, when you compete, don't forget to eat something with a little sugar; I always used grapes that I washed and put in a zip lock bag for my teams. By the way, remember to use the bathroom; you can't think creatively when they are thinking of something else!
Read along with the Appraisers (silently). After you start, have someone who is the team's 'Reader' to go over it again; maybe read it as the team starts to brainstorm their solution.
The Reader is also the person who is looking to make sure that the team doesn't go off track and is doing what the Challenge is asking for them to do.
See that word 'presentation?' When you see that, you know that your team needs to put on a short performance/skit as part of their solution. The more integrated it is, the higher the point value. Improv, Improv, IMPROV!
Check out where the points are coming from; how many different costumes will be scored? You might see humor getting scored in various Challenges; what does that mean to your team? You are being scored by adults (usually), so what does humor mean to them?
Remember, if it is not nice to say at the family dinner table with Grandma sitting there, the Appraisers won't like it either. No 'bathroom' humor!
Play with all the kinds of things that are used to create solutions in our Instant Challenges. Keep a list (with sketches) of how many things your team can do with a straw, tape, an envelope, labels, string, yarn, paper plates, paper clips, toothpicks, paper; you get the idea. We always toss in extra stuff, but the favorites are usually there.
Take things apart; what else can you do with them? Learn how to use ANYTHING that has adhesive (sticky) properties, or can hold other things together.
Talk about what the word 'teamwork' means to your team. How can you demonstrate teamwork? We teach the Appraisers that each team will have their own style of teamwork. Discover your style. How will you express your style so the Appraisers can take note of it? Teamwork is nearly ALWAYS scored.
You should try to do Instant Challenge practice at every team meeting. I know that by the time your first competition comes around, your Team Manager feels brain dead with coming up with one more Challenge No problem! You should be repeating Challenges that you have done. Here's my rule: You can do ANYTHING, but you can't create your solution that is anything at all like what you did the first time. It must be a totally different solution to the same Challenge. What will happen is that by doing this, it will force your team to that next level of creativity that is WOW!

Instant Challenge Websites and Resources

For practice instant challenges, check:

http://www.destinationimagination.org/ IC's available for purchase on CD

www.artcafe.net/playhouse/ Reggie's Playhouse

www.angelfire.com/wi/thinkingcaps from Down Under

www.txcpso.org/IC/index.html from Texas, I think

http://www.dipins.org/ more than 600 sites

www.lowrent.net/improv/games.html Improv Games

ww.dramateachers.co.uk

Kits from Colorado Affiliate

These have been offered in the past. Check and see if they are doing it again this year! I'm so glad you mentioned those Extremely Creative Colorado kits! But better not wait til December to order one - I bet they'll be sold out by then! Over the past couple of days I've received my 2002 Instant Challenge Kit AND their new book," Cream of the Crop" (over 50 I.C.s), and I'm looking forward to receiving the new Improv Bingo game from the Colorado Divas. Here's the contact info: Colorado Extreme Creativity Kit - Connie Ackerman (coackerm@du.edu) Improv Bingo - Debi Tipton (debitipton@aol.com)

Team Problems With Building ICs

IC Building Problems

Okay - we've got a GREAT team of kids who are incredibly creative and just FILLED with energy and ideas. They are also very independent-minded and all are opinionated and strong-willed. We've worked hard to develop work-together skills and they've done REALLY great on working on the team challenge and they are also absolutely wonderful on performance-based instant challenges.

BUT -- and its a big BUT -- they fall apart on structure-based instant challenges. They just have too many ideas and they can't seem to work it out and they get cranky and mad at each other. Every time they start one, somebody will VERY quickly and often loudly - jump in with an idea, before they've even had a chance to look over the materials or have any group conversation about it - it is obvious that they're racing each other to be the first to give their ideas, hoping that the others will just go along.

There are lots of dynamics here - these kids are close friends who spend a lot of time with each other. But they are having a LOT of hard feelings - increasingly - over who gets to really do the designing and building of structures when they do these instant challenges. They snap at each other and they get loud to try to get heard and they get upset and storm off. It is bad.

My asst team manager and I have offered LOTS of ideas for how to get organized to do the decision-making. And we've talked about killer statements. That backfired a little, accusing each other of making killer statements was itself a cause of turmoil.

We have four boys and three girls. The girls tend to get mad, yell, cry, and stomp off. The boys tend to take over and assume that they have the better ideas and ought to be doing the building (at least that's how the girls see it).

A BIG part of the problem is simply that the structure instant challenges don't seem designed for that many people to do them at once - I think adults would have a hard time ALL getting involved in some of them. I mean - there are just too many cooks and some end up just sort of sitting around, feeling useless. My kids don't handle that well at all.

The time constraint is really the problem. When we first started these, we tried to get them used to it by giving them lots of time, and they used to do fine -- they'd brainstorm and everybody would give input and they'd talk about the different ideas and narrow it down and then decide - sometimes by a vote - which idea to use. That would use up about 15 minutes - and they NEVER would have that much time in a real Instant Challenge situation. And then they'd STILL have problems deciding who was going to really BUILD stuff - I mean who would be the hands-on people - you can't have 14 hands all sticking a toothpick into a marshmallow .

Somebody please describe to me how a team would do this - with all seven members really happily participating. For example, we tried to do one where they had to move an egg from point A to point B across a 3 foot gap. They had string, paperclips, a balloon, and some other things. Maybe if I can envision this better, I can help them more.

Hang in there! First of all, teams generally 'behave' better in a Tournament situation then around a kitchen table :)

Seriously, one idea you may wish to try is having the kids take on specific roles during IC time and using practices to perfect these roles. Ex. if one child is a time keeper, s/he would practice reminding team mates, gently, of the time remaining, rather then barking at them. Roles we have used over the years include main builders (1 or 2), specs man or woman (makes sure all items are covered), time keeper, story director(s) and peacemaker (with my HS kids we call this the Ghandi position). With the different strength that each team member adds, different leaders emerge in performance or task based ICs. The kids know their roles before arriving at Tournament and then adapt once they hear the challenge. This has worked for us because it shifts the focus from individuals to working for the good of the team.

Another reply

I do the same as Leslie, each child knows what his job will be with different types of instant challenges. The day of the competition they know that what matters is how the team performs and that team work is an essential part of it. They have to leave their ego's behind for that day.

I don't know how far your kids get at home but if there is constantly a couple of kids who no one listens to give the same challenge to your kids giving them the choice to solve it on their own, or to break into groups. At the end of the time you can go around and they can explain their ideas and see whose really would have scored highest. You can also discuss with them how if they took one part and combined it with someone else's it would be even better. This might help them realize that the other members also have something to contribute, it also helps the one who feels like he never gets a chance see what the results would be if it was done his way. And it eliminates the person who hogs all the supplies. Often I will even do the challenge to show them what I would do while they are watching and tell them I am doing this like so an so and this part is like yours etc.

Another reply

We also have a difficult time with building problems for many of the same reasons you listed. My kids have been together for 5 years and still have trouble with it. Last year they surprised me at Global Finals where they had a building problem and actually did very well - 9th out of 64. One of the things they decided last year was that their problem was often "too many hands" so when they find it getting crowded, someone will say "too many hands" and usually a few back off. We have also worked with assigning each member a specific job. There are a few who are builders, a leader, a timekeeper, a point monitor (someone who knows where the most points are), and a materials person to make sure they use as much as possible. During our practices, they take turns doing the different jobs and close to competition times, we discuss who was good at what. We discussed what made a good leader, and a good solution. They very wisely chose our best organizer to lead them and that helped a lot. Let them draw jobs out of a hat for a while so that everyone has a chance at every job. It doesn't always work well, but it makes them more aware of what is required to be successful as a team.

Getting Your Team Ready for Task Based Instant Challenges

Task Based Challenges are the toughest to get a Team ready for during practice. Personally, I like the idea of teaching a Team to deal with Task based IC's by assigning roles. From several years of Appraising IC's at all levels here are some common mistakes:

Lack of Time Management - No one watches the time, no planning resulting in a poor showing
Not Reading and Understanding what the IC requires to:
- Score points - Teams need to learn to pick out what in a task based IC scores points and focus on that area ... don't get drug off on tangents
- Solve the Challenge - They jump on a phrase or sentence and run off on a tangent that makes it difficult to solve the IC or miss the point all together
Lack of understanding of how to use the materials or thinking that ALL the materials must be used to solve the IC .... Teams need a basic understanding of how basic materials can be used. Too many teams look at a material table like they have never seen one before.
Understanding how to "present" a solution when the IC requires the Team to "present" to the Appraisers. A presentation can be more than "telling" the Appraisers about their solution ... this is an area of creative freedom that can score points
Hiding their planning - Appraisers can't judge team-work when the Team does it's planning like they are in a library

OK, OK how does this relate to getting 7 Kids involved in working a task based IC.

Assign roles and responsibilities. All the kids can't be all things at all times (7 kids with a tooth pick and a marshmallow), but some can be responsible for time, reading/understanding, a couple material experts, a "ham" that is responsible for planning the presentation .... All seven make up a team. Some may be more active than others, but each is a necessary parts of the whole.

Coaching and planning in this way teaches life skills that adults deal with every day.

Coaching is not simple .... fact is it's simply frustrating .....

Return to Table of Contents

A Typical Tournament Day

The Schedule
7:15-8am
Registration-Only Team Manager may pick up registration pack

7:15-8am
Structure weigh-in & registration

7:30-8am
Appraisers meeting-breakfast provided!

7:30-8am
Set-up for opening parade-Line up with your membership banner. TM should remain with the team but should not march in with the team. Parents & supporters should be seated in the gym.

8am
Opening Ceremonies

9am-3pm
Team Challenge Presentations-See program for times and locations of specific challenges-See as many as you can!

9am-3pm
Instant Challenge Presentations-Team members and one Team manager only may go in to the IC location

9am-5pm
Food Sales, Pin Sales, T-shirt Sales, Souvenir Sales, Cake Walk, Fun Activities, Silent Auction

5pm
Closing Ceremonies-Celebration of Creativity

Most memberships/schools wear matching T-shirts designed by team members from their organization.

Each membership/school is invited to compete in the banner parade. Banners will be judged for creativity and awards will be given for the top 3 banners.

Each membership must provide a cake for the cake walk. This cake can also be entered in the Creative Cake Contest. Cakes will be judges for creativity and awards will be given for the top 3 cakes.

Team members, team managers and supporters are invited to wear a creative hat and compete for the annual Creative Hat Award for the best hat at state tournament.

Team members should bring money for food, drinks, and any souvenirs they wish to purchase.

Tournament Day Timeline for Central Challenge
Get Ready
Leave plenty of time to:
Unload your props and check for last minute repairs.
Team members should be dressed-including hair and make up.
Parents and supporters should be seated at this time.
Arrive in prep area 30 minutes ahead of time. (1 hour for Improv Challenge)
Check in with the Prep Area & hand in paperwork.
The Prep area Appraiser will ask the team a few questions and check the safety of the solution.
Move props into pre-staging area.
Choose the Improv Item/Alternative.

Get Set
Team members move props into the launch area.
Team Managers are seated.
Team is announced and presented with their Improv Item or chooses their letters for Improv Alternative.
Team has 1 minute to discuss the Improv Item. If Improv Alternative is chosen, at the end of the minute, the announcer announces the phrase.

GO!
When the announcer says “Begin” the eight minute solution time begins.
Your team does a fabulous performance!!
When time is over, your team will take a bow to thunderous applause!!
Parents and supporters should remain seated until the Appraiser interview is complete.
The Appraisers will interview your team members.
TMs may not participate in the interview process.
After the interview is complete, anyone may help remove props from the performance are and clean up.

Scores
When your raw scores are ready, your team’s name will be posted at the performance site.
One Team Manager and One Team member may pick up the score sheet.
The team has 30 minutes to review scores and ask questions. Only objective scores can be questioned.

Tournament Day Timeline for Instant Challenge
Get Ready
Parents and supporters are not allowed in the IC room.
Arrive in prep area 30 minutes ahead of time.
Check in with the Prep Area & hand in your Declaration of Independence.
Relax

Get Set
The team and one team manager will be called by the Appraisers and escorted to the IC room.

Go!
The Appraisers will present the IC to the team.
Your team does a fabulous performance!!
When the IC is complete you will be escorted out of the IC room.
After the team and manager leave the IC room, secrecy is very important because the same challenges are used at our tournament an also at others around the world.

Scores
Scores for IC are not handed out. They are posted at the end of the competition.

Return to Table of Contents

Destination Imagination
Team Manager Tips & Tricks
2003-2004

About this manual

Instant Challenge - finding the easy points

Instant Challenge - more tips

Instant Challenge – tips from a successful team member

Instant Challenge Help from a Successful IC Team –What Appraisers Want…

MORE IC Judging Tips

Instant Challenge – a Proposed Rubrics for Scoring

Instant Challenge - tips from a appraiser

Teamwork Scoring for IC

Presentation Tools

A Challenge to DI for!

More IC Tips-Job Descriptions

IC Tips-Keep it Moving

Crafting an Instant Challenge Game Plan: Analysis of the Challenge

The Performance-Based IC Ideas Check List

Another CPS Tool - Properties of Materials

Redefinition of Physical Items

Properties of Materials

Properties of Materials

SCAMPER Sub-Components - Substitute, Adapt, Put to Other Uses
Extenders/Structural/Infra-Structure
Yard sticks	Rulers	Dowels
Paper	Paper Clips	Paper Plates
Index Cards	Straws	Spaghetti
Pipe Cleaners	Styrofoam Cups	Pencils
Envelopes	Paper Tubes	Etc.
Connectors/Adhesives
Mailing Labels	Clay	Rubber Bands
Paper Clips	Gum Drops	Pipe Cleaners
Envelope Glue	Tape	Marshmallows
Tooth Picks	String	Pasta
Paper Tubes	Yarn	Etc.
Controllers/Holders/Transporting Items
Envelopes	Cups	Toothpicks
Lunch Bags	Tubes	Balloons
Paper	Aluminum Foil	Straws
Paper Plates	Spoons	Cotton Balls
Clay	Etc.
Designed and Written by Rosemary Bognar

Destination ImaginationTeam Manager Tips & Tricks2003-2004

About this manual

Instant Challenge - finding the easy points

Instant Challenge - more tips

Instant Challenge – tips from a successful team member

Instant Challenge Help from a Successful IC Team –What Appraisers Want…

MORE IC Judging Tips

Instant Challenge – a Proposed Rubrics for Scoring

Instant Challenge - tips from a appraiser

Teamwork Scoring for IC

Presentation Tools

A Challenge to DI for!

More IC Tips-Job Descriptions

IC Tips-Keep it Moving

Crafting an Instant Challenge Game Plan: Analysis of the Challenge

The Performance-Based IC Ideas Check List

Another CPS Tool - Properties of Materials

Redefinition of Physical Items

Properties of Materials

Properties of Materials

Destination Imagination
Team Manager Tips & Tricks
2003-2004