Jewish day school first-year team takes first place for instant challenges at regional and state competitions

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Not only did Hillel Academy Jewish day school field its first Destination Imagination teams this year, its third through fifth grade team earned the top spot for its instant challenge at the regional competition, March 16.

And not only did the team receive the highest instant challenge score at the state finals March 29, it now heads to the DI Global Finals with the top teams from around the world, May 22-25 in Kansas City, Mo.

“It’s huge. We really got our name out there,” says Hillel DI Team Manager Keri Sauer, a veteran teacher, in her first year as the school’s pre-K and kindergarten instructor.

Amy Sera, who teaches third and fourth grade secular studies and third through sixth grade science at Hillel, manages the DI team with Sauer.

Sauer’s DI experience goes back 15 years, first as a parent, then as a coach with her husband for Dayton Regional STEM School’s team, and ultimately as a judge.

Sauer and Sera asked Hillel Principal Anna Smith if she would be interested in bringing DI to Hillel.

“We did a couple of meetings with parents, and here we are,” Sauer says.

According to destinationimagination.org, DI brings students together in teams to solve open-ended STEAM challenges designed to teach the creative process.

DI defines the creative process as “a step-by-step approach that helps students better understand problems and ask better questions, come up with solutions, learn from failure, and celebrate their achievements.”

Its best-known team program is its science, technology, engineering, arts and math-based Challenge Experience competition for grades three to 12 and undergraduate students.

At the regional and state DI competitions, the Hillel team presented its solution to a team challenge as well as an instant challenge.

The Hillel students began training after Thanksgiving for the March 16 regional competition, held at Sinclair Community College.

Sauer was in the room with the Hillel team when it received its regional instant challenge.

“Only one coach can go in the room with them,” she says. “The way they answered it, as soon as they started doing it, I was like, OK, this is pretty great. After they had done it, I wasn’t surprised that they had won, but being a first-year team, instant challenge is notoriously difficult, so I was surprised how well they did.”

Sauer says DI teams and their managers are unable to discuss instant challenges with anyone outside of their team until after the global finals.

“But I can give you an idea of challenges,” she says. “You go into a room with one coach and four to six appraisers, which are the judges. They put a challenge in front of you that usually must be done in eight minutes. Sometimes you’ll have five minutes to plan and three minutes to perform, or six minutes to plan and two minutes to perform.

“Sometimes it’s an impromptu challenge with no materials at all. Other times you’ll go in and there will be everyday items like labels, paper clips, newspapers, straws, laid out on the table, and they’ll give you a problem to solve or something to act out.”

Each DI team also competes in a team challenge, which it prepares in advance and performs at the competitions. Teams select from five challenges, each with a specific educational focus.

Hillel’s competitive team chose the scientific challenge, which has a space-based theme this year.

“Our challenge was, someone shows up on a real planet and thinks they’re alone, only to find out they’re not alone, and then you have to teach them science and have techno-babble in your performance,” Sauer says. “It’s eight minutes long from beginning to end, all made by the kids, costumes by the kids, script by the kids.

“We’re not allowed to help them at all. They have to look at the rules, interpret the rules, and create an answer to the problem all on their own.”

Teams receive scores that indicate what they did well and what they could improve, so members can make changes if they go on to the next levels.

“They can scrap everything and completely start over — most teams do not do that,” Sauer says. “They can make any changes they choose to. The only thing they can’t change is team members.”

“When we heard we were going to state, we started preparing immediately,” says third grader Cole Elder, one of the younger students on Hillel’s DI competition team.

“We fixed what we thought was wrong, and we had to switch something we did wrong that could have taken off a lot of points, because we realized we didn’t need it, and fixed our script.”

At both regional and state, Hillel Academy placed sixth in its age category for team challenges.

DI teams often come up with their own team names. The official name of Hillel’s third to fifth grade team is Moshe’s Cosmic Burritos.

“We voted on it,” Cole says. “It’s because Moshe Simon couldn’t make it to regionals or state because it was on a Saturday, so we named the team after him.”

Because Hillel Academy is a Jewish day school — with some students whose families are Shabbat-observant — Sauer requested that Ohio DI allow Hillel to perform at the regional and state competitions on a day other than Saturday.

“Unfortunately, Saturday was the only day it was offered for the two performances so far. With globals, we have put in a request again. They have said it shouldn’t be a problem because it’s several days.”

DI doesn’t penalize a team if members aren’t able to make the competition; they’re still part of the team.

“You’ll see a lot of teams that will carry around a student’s picture because someone doesn’t end up there, generally because they’re sick.”

True to form, Moshe’s Cosmic Burritos carried a photo of its namesake. When the team went into their instant challenges, judges asked Sauer whose photo they were holding.

“I’d say, ‘This is Moshe.’ And then they’d ask, ‘Is he sick today?’ And I told them why he wasn’t here.”

Moshe’s teammates made sure his presence was felt. His face was on several props.

“They talk about him being the owner of this company that sends this astronaut to space,” Sauer says. “They also put in the skit why Moshe wasn’t there. Someone said, ‘Why isn’t Moshe working’ at whatever company ‘that’s sending me off?’ ‘He can’t be here today because it’s Saturday,’ and they gave a little bit of knowledge to the audience, as well, about why he couldn’t be there.”

DI also hosts Early Learning, a noncompetitive program for pre-K to second grade students. Hillel’s kindergarten through second grade team presented at regionals and received recognition for its ability to navigate disagreements, its whole team discussions, and its thinking outside the box.

Yisroel Simon, Moshe’s younger brother, was on this team. His image and voice were present in its skit.

The 2025 global finals in May mark Sauer’s first time bringing in a team at that top level.

“These kids are out there being creative and scientific, and learning all these new things in the DI community. They’re a huge asset to the community.”

To read the complete May 2025 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.