Unlocking learning through imagination
Long ago, in a remote village, a dragon forgot how to fly. Normally, a grounded dragon wouldn’t be a problem for the villagers—but this one was the creator of the world’s winds. After a fierce battle with a rival, the amnesiac dragon must rely on a wizard mind keeper and a memory box—a wind‑up model showing the dragon in its former glory—to remember how air once glided through his wings. This is the kind of plot you’d expect from a fantasy novel, but at Julius Dorsey Leadership Academy, it’s part of a competitive, project‑based learning program. 
Under the guidance of gifted and talented teacher Zugey Morin, the cohort in Destination Imagination dreamed up the story to investigate the physics of flight, resilience, and memory.
To explore a deceptively simple question—how can a heavy creature propel itself upward and remain suspended in the air—students had to think like engineers.They built mechanical wings and a gear box that could move the dragon in stages. When the dragon finally takes off across the stage, purple lights flip on, a neon backdrop glows, and the clouds roll away as wind returns to the village.
For Morin, this challenge illustrates what happens when students are trusted to think, build, and imagine for themselves.
“I don’t teach them like a sage on stage,” Morin said. “It’s more of guiding on the side.”
She does this by asking questions: What do you want the audience to see? How could you show flight without just acting it out? How do you turn a theme—forgetting and remembering—into mechanisms and motion?
That belief in student agency has roots in her own story. A Moisés E. Molina High School graduate, Morin studied economics with a minor in business administration and worked in the corporate world before switching careers.
“I realized I could be doing something a little bit more meaningful,” Morin said.
As a child, she would even persuade her brother and sister to “play students,” printing out pages on Egyptian culture and mythology so she could “teach” them. Teaching, she said, always felt inevitable.
Through Dallas ISD’s alternative certification program, Morin started at Eladio R. Martinez Learning Center then went to John F. Peeler Elementary School, where she also served as an instructional coach and demo teacher. Eventually, she was recruited to Julius Dorsey, where she has now been for three years. There, she teaches gifted and talented students and science and leads the Destination Imagination team.
Her classroom, the Imaginarium, funded through a makeover grant from United to Learn and Stemscapes, looks less like a traditional room and more like a compact workshop. Pegboards display tools; drawers and benches hold materials; a hot glue station, “chomp saw” station, and 3D printers line the walls. Everything is out in the open on purpose.
“It’s hard to be inventive when you don’t know your tools or how to use them,” Morin said. “Visible materials—foam balls, cardboard rolls, pipe cleaners—start spinning the wheel for the students.”
Letting students roam that space means ceding some control. Morin acknowledges that “a lot of adults have a hard time letting go of control,” but her approach is to teach procedures and then trust students.
“If you teach students how to do things properly, they can be self‑sufficient,” Morin said. “My students get on the stepping stool and grab things on their own. By the end of the year, there’s no corrections needed. I’m just supervising and making sure we’re all safe.”
Her third graders, she said, have even used Tinkercad to design 3D‑printed pet shelters. Last year, they collaborated on elaborate utopian cities with residential, commercial, and green zones after reading the graphic novel adaptation of The City of Ember.
This is what makes Destination Imagination unique: it’s where the fantasy of flightless dragons meets the discipline of competition.
“It’s sort of like the Olympics of creativity,” Morin said, “where teams of kids get together to solve challenges using their imagination, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.”
Teams work on a central challenge for months and then face a surprise “instant challenge” on tournament day. This year, Morin’s team placed third at regionals. Only the top two teams advanced, but her students were already looking ahead.
“Okay, we lost, but that’s all right because we are going to do better next year,” Morin said. That impulse to adjust and try again is exactly the kind of resilience she hopes to cultivate.
Above all, Morin wants her students to leave with a sense that learning can feel magical without losing its rigor.
“I want my students to feel empowered to use their imagination and creativity to problem-solve and simply be,” Morin said. “I want them to feel that learning was fun, and that they had a great time because it didn’t feel like work.”
