Homeschool Happymess: A Naturally Inspiring Approach to Education

The kids are still busy polishing up their performances for the Destination Imagination Global Finals.  They’ve developed not only the acting, improvisational, prop and costume design and engineering skills that one would expect from a competition that centers on theater arts; the contest has also presented opportunities to develop teamwork and to learn to research effectively.

Team I.C.E.

This group of middle and high schoolers continued to research news articles.  They will need to know six team-chosen articles inside-out in order to succeed at the improvisational challenge, which requires not only on-the-spot thinking but also the ability to quickly develop a story based on previous knowledge of current events.  Choosing and learning about the articles is a team activity.

To help them assimilate the information, team I.C.E. identified major facts in each article and created flashcards for effective studying. Because they are pressed for time, the kids will study and rehearse as much as possible over the next few days, and will review their articles during the 16 hour car ride to Tennessee.

SolarNauts:

The SolarNauts also had to learn to research important topics.  This group of kids, all in elementary school, participated in the science challenge, which involved creating a skit about a possible future use of solar energy.  Their idea, the “Beam Machine” is a machine that can redirect solar energy from outer space directly to earth.  Today they worked on the Beam Machine.

Globals has everyone incredibly excited.  Our Team Connecticut tshirts and trading pins (each of the kids receives thirty to exchange for pins from other states and countries) arrived today. There’s a ton of planning, rehearsing, and packing left to do!  We will have 29 people in our group, including 14 team members, team managers, chaperones and supporters.

Filed under: Art, Contests, Current Events, Humanities, Science/Math, Theater, World Awareness | Tagged: Connecticut, Destination Imagination, Elementary level, elementary school, high school, News to Me, Secondary level, Solar Stage |