Destination Imagination (DI) is a global program where teams of up to seven kids pick an open-ended challenge each fall, spend the school year building a solution, and present it live at a spring tournament. Off-screen by design. Builds the creativity and confidence that matter most in an increasingly AI-driven world. No experience required.
DI tournament day
We're standing up two to four teams of up to seven kids each for our first DI season, grades 3-8. No experience required, for kids or parents. Register your kid as an individual and we'll place them on a team, or round up a friend group and sign up together.
Questions? Email di@piedmontmakers.org.
Team Challenge
Each team picks one of six open-ended challenges in September and spends the school year building a solution: a skit they wrote, props, costumes, often a technical device, all performed live in eight minutes at the spring tournament. Adults can't do the work for them. Interference rules are strict, and that's part of the point.
Instant Challenge
At every tournament, each team walks into a room and gets a brand-new problem with a small pile of materials. Sometimes it's a building task, sometimes performance, sometimes both. Practiced through the year; revealed cold on the day.
Specific challenge prompts change each year. The categories don't. A team that loves theater can find a home alongside a team that loves circuits.
Technical
Build a device or invention that performs a task. Mechanisms, contraptions, working prototypes.
Scientific
Investigate a hands-on phenomenon and present what you learned. Research, models, experiments.
Engineering
Design a structure that holds weight, withstands force, or solves a structural problem.
Fine Arts
Tell a story through performance, visual art, and design. Theater meets making.
Improvisational
Research a topic, then improvise a sketch on a twist revealed at the tournament.
Service Learning
Identify a community need and act on it. Document the impact and share what changed.