Instant Challenge Newsletter

Instant Challenge Day Correction!

South Metro Instant Challenge Day date was listed incorrectly on the last newsletter. The date is Saturday, January 28th at St Mary's Academy on University.

Why Instant Challenge?

Instant Challenge is an important but often overlooked part of the DI program. It's easy to get caught up in the Long-Term Challenge and overlook the Instant Challenge until the last minute.

Our goal with Instant Challenges is to give our team members the skills to think quickly and confidently on their feet. In our every day lives urgent situations arise. Being able to face those situations without panicking and knowing how to think the problem though calmly and with confidence is a skill all of us need!

Plus, Instant Challenge is worth 1/4 of the teams score and can quickly mean the difference between 1st and 4th place!

Instant Challenge Debrief

It is important to debrief with your team after doing an Instant Challenge. This gives your team members an opportunity to talk over where they excelled, where they went wrong and what they might do to improve. We suggest you do a challenge twice to give the team an opportunity to try their new ideas - their ideas might not be as awesome as they think!

Attached is a list of debriefing ideas to go through with the team. It includes the following items: teamwork, time management, materials, creativity, scoring and an overall how did you do.

IC Debrief

Instant Challenge

On The Ball

Focus: Building, Structure, Engineering

The Challenge: Your TASK is to use the materials provided to build a freestanding tower that is as tall as possible on top of a basketball ball.

Download the full Challenge here: On The Ball

Team Building Skills

Can I serve you?

Goal: To serve each other.... literally!

Supplies: This activity can be done with any type of food that needs fixing. (ice cream sundaes, spaghetti dinner, tacos) Please be mindful of food allergies!

The Rules:

You cannot ask for anything for yourself, you may not fix your own food.
You must wait for someone to ask if you’d like some _______. Then your response is either “Yes please” or “No thank you” only.
Want more? Great! You need to wait for someone on the team to ask if you’d like more. You are not allowed to serve yourself at any time.

Follow-Up:

How did it feel to have someone else fix your food for you?
Did you get exactly what you wanted, and the amount you wanted?
How did you feel serving someone else?
Who want something else but didn’t get it? How did that make you feel?
Whom did being limited to the “Yes please” or “No thank you” response frustrate?
How can we apply this information to our challenge?

Improve Your Improv

Improv is a great way to build trust between team members, think quickly, and have fun! There are "Rules of Improv" used by professional improv troops that will help your DI team. If your team is doing the Slow Down challenge this year, here are two ways to help your team. Also, it's good for other challenges to practice improv!

Rules of Improv - These are the general rules used and written by by professional improv troops.

Rules of Improv

Here is an instant way to come up with improv situations for your team to practice. Four circles that fit on top of each other. The largest ring has obstacles, next is the main character, then a location and last is the goal of the improv game. The center of the circles have been marked so you can insert a pin into the middle. Rotate the circles for multiple improv scenarios

Improv Circles

Instant Challenge

Your Instant Challenge, Challenge Masters are available for any questions you have. Please don't hesitate to contact them.

Josh Halbrook

Tony Estrada

Team Purchasing Information

Team Numbers and Background Checks are available to purchase.

*Important: Douglas County teams please contact Kayla before purchasing

Affiliate and South Metro Pricing:

$110 per Challenge + $45 Colorado Fee = $155
$25 Background Check
South Metro Tournament Fee $100
Instant Challenge Day (optional) $35

When your school purchases 10 or more Team Numbers, you'll save 5% to 25%. Learn more about volume discounts on our pricing page!

Regional Directors:

Kayla Steffens: Kayla

Debi Tipton: Debi

South Metro Destination Imagination

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