Destination Imagination (DI) held an awareness night Monday, Sept. 25 at Forestwood Middle School to add new members.

DI is an extracurricular program that focuses on creativity and teaches students problem solving teamwork skills.

LISD DI Coordinator Robin Napier believes that DI is a way for parents to be involved in their child’s education in a meaningful way.

“Parents who volunteer as team managers get a window into their child’s life that they would not necessarily get otherwise,” Napier said.

The program is broken up into teams that are based on their grade and the school they attend. The teams are: Rising stars (K-2nd grade), Elementary (3rd-5th), Middle (6th-8th) and Secondary (9th-12th).

These teams are run by parents and volunteers. They decide the practice times, scheduling and where the meetings or practices are held. During practices, students get together and work on projects.

“A student who has been involved in DI, especially for multiple years, knows how to approach a problem or project in a very systematic way,” Napier said.

Students gain their problem-solving skills through research, strategic planning, engineering and other related skills.

They then show their team’s solutions to the tasks in tournaments.

There are different types of challenge categories: technical, fine arts, service learning and others.

There is no cost to join unless students are going to a more advanced competition like state.

Students can sign up throughout October and must have a team of up to seven people with a parent. For any additional information on how to join, contact Robin Napier at [email protected].