Thank you to Central Illinois Terminix for sponsoring this week’s Chambana Mom to Know! Do you have pests in your home? It’s time to call our local Terminix. The “Big Bugs” folks represent one of the oldest names in pest control, and the Central Illinois franchise has been in the same family since 1946. You can connect with Terminix via its website (bigbugs.com), follow them on Twitter at @big_bugs, or call 217-866-0533.
Urbana schoolteacher Jodi Miller has a big idea: to bring to Champaign-Urbana a program called Destination Imagination, a volunteer-led organization that teaches 21st century skills and STEM principles to kids through creative and collaborative problem solving exercises. Miller and her husband moved to Champaign-Urbana with a 6-month-old daughter (now 7); they also now have a 4-year-old son. Miller, who teaches second grade at Leal Elementary, recently completed a master’s degree in early childhood education with a focus on science education from the University of Illinois. Last year she started a Destination Imagination team for her daughter and her friends.
See why we think Jodi Miller is a Chambana mom to know.
Q: What is Destination Imagination?
Destination Imagination is a non-profit organization that teaches teamwork, creativity, problem solving, engineering, and more. The organization has been around since 1982, and has been called DI since 1999. This organization has about 200,000 student participants every year in 48 states and 30 countries. It offers six challenges to choose from, and provides opportunities for children ages 4 through college. The challenge themes each year are in these areas: Scientific, Technical, Fine Arts, Improv, Structural, Service Learning and Early Learning. This program is almost entirely volunteer run, and helps students learn 21st century skills such as STEM skills, project management, and collaboration.
Q: What does the competition entail?
There are two components of the competition. One is the central challenge, which teams receive in the fall and work on solving through the winter months. At the competition, they show their solution. Also at the competition, every team is given an Instant Challenge. This is not given to the team ahead of time, and the team must solve this smaller challenge in only a few minutes. This may be a verbal challenge (answer a question with as many possibilities as you can think of within a couple of minutes) or a physical challenge (build something with a set of materials to solve a problem).
Q: Why are you so passionate about this program?
I love this program, and have been involved in it since it began back in 1982! At that time, I was a student. Eventually I became an appraiser, challenge master, and coach. The reason I want to start it here is because it is really fun! The kids are %100 in charge of their solutions, their products, and their goals. As a parent and educator, I cannot begin to tell you the importance of ownership and the power of accomplishment and learning when the child is the in the lead role. This organization makes thinking outside the box the norm. Playing with duct tape is encouraged, heck 3M even is a major sponsor and holds several awesome duct tape competitions at the DI Global Finals every year in Tennessee.
For selfish reasons. I want my children to be able to have this opportunity. I want my students to have skills in creative thinking, collaboration, problem solving, communication, and a desire to figure out their own problems. I volunteer with DI because it’s a blast! The competitions are full of energy and very positive. The students amaze you all the time. Plus, I chose to be a teacher because I love kids and I want them to love learning. This is just one great way to get them wanting to do research, wanting to try new things, and it not costing hardly anything. (Teams are around $140 for 7 students, so around $20 each plus the cost of supplies, ie: duct tape and hot glue).
Q: As an educator, what do you see as the benefits of this program for kids?
The biggest reason why I recommend DI? Everyone can do it. It doesn’t matter your language, your abilities, or your background knowledge, you can be successful. It helps students learn how to learn from others and try new things. One year when I competed as a student, I learned (from a teammate) how to build a vehicle with a motor, gears, etc., something I never thought I could do. You may be wondering how the students can do %100 of the work? It’s the coaching. Volunteer coaches, usually parents. The coaches get a great guide with well written out plans for each meeting, and lots of support. The best part as a coach is that you can’t tell them the answers or help them to do any part of it. That’s also the hardest part. Kids are amazing. They can do so much, if we just let them.
For this program to be successful here, we will need families to sign up, parents or other adults to volunteer to coach a team of 7 creative kids (usually in someone’s home), and one volunteer appraiser for each team. Don’t worry, being an appraiser is fun and they train you! Oh, and the only other thing, you have to be willing to think outside of the box (and travel to Pekin in early March for competition).
Q: Why bring this program to Champaign-Urbana now?
After having worked with several professors at UIUC for both my Masters degree and a teacher training summer institute called EnList (for teaching STEM), I was able to get support to start this program here in the means of funding for flyers and scholarships for students who may need financial support.
My favorite way to learn as a student was by doing. I had a fifth grade teacher who dressed up like she was going on a safari whenever it was science time. She brought in everything we were learning about, be it rocks, human organs, bugs, or plants. I got to learn about them by actually seeing it and trying it. In middle school I chose to take shop class because I wanted to know how to make everything. Back then it was woodwork and welding, now it’s Fab Labs!
Have a friend, relative or neighbor you think is a Chambana mom/dad to know? Nominate him or her today — it’s easy and only takes a few minutes!