Up for a Challenge?


The idea for this came from my desire to give my older kids a weekly challenge in their workboxes. A couple years ago, we had the opportunity to be on Destination Imagination (DI) team. The boys had fun, learned so much while participating and their team took first place at the state competition. The Instant Challenge is the heart of DI, and our favorite part of the experience. And I thought it would be a perfect addition to our workboxes.

I am really excited about this, and I think you will like it too. So I am inviting you to join us!

“Up for a Challenge?” is designed to get students involved in critical thinking and creative problem solving by doing an Instant Challenge.

According to the DI website, Instant Challenges promote critical thinking, creativity and the ability to solve problems quickly.

Furthermore, IC’s promote:
  • The ability to assess and use available materials in creative ways
  • A knack for improvisation
  • A collaboration of efforts
  • Their engineering skills
  • A flair for performance
  • Time-management strategies
  • Teamwork

Instant Challenges can be Performance-based, Task-based, or a combination of the two (called a hybrid challenge). For the purpose of this carnival, I will focus on task-based and hybrid challenges and give Performance-based challenges as an extra challenge from time to time (unless you are willing to video record your challenges, it can be harder to share performance challenges online).

Using the challenges, with permission, at Instant Challenge Gold Mine, I will post a new instant challenge each week on Monday and then ask you to join us.

Each challenge uses common materials that you can find around the house, such as mailing labels, chenille sticks, straws, rubber bands, etc. You can print the list of supplies found here.

The Rules:
  • Provide a link back to Delightful Learning or use the Up for a Challenge? button in your post.
  • Follow the rules listed in each Instant Challenge.
  • You may not help or give suggestions during the challenge, but you may ask questions such as “Are you using all of your supplies?” or “Can you think of any other way you could use that?” if they are struggling to find a solution.
  • Whenever possible, make this a team event to encourage team work. For the purpose of this carnival, a team is 2 or more students working together. However, if you only have one child that can participate, then they may work individually. This will still be a valuable experience for them.
  • Be sure to give your student feedback with their score. Point out specific things that caught your attention. Be positive and encouraging, but also give them honest feedback on how they can improve.
  • Post your results/solution with a photo or video of the challenge and share the permalink to your URL in a comment. 
  • Challenge your kids to have fun, get creative and think critically!

So, are you up for a challenge?

See the challenges and solutions posted here!

2 comments

  1. We are IN! Just have to gather my items...LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  2. what a fabulous idea. Is this really aimed at the older student then?

    ReplyDelete