Da Vinci Design Celebrates Students in their First-Ever Presentation of Learning (POL) Excellence Awards
On February 2, 2024, Da Vinci Design hosted their first-ever Presentation of Learning (POL) Excellence Awards Breakfast to honor and celebrate 11 Designers who went above and beyond in their POLs last semester. Designers’ families were invited to attend the awards breakfast and each Designer, who received recognition, presented a portion of their POL to the audience.
The Designers who received Excellence Awards this semester were:
9th grade:
Kinnon Palmer – English 9: Narrative Nonfiction
Sarah Arambula – English 9: Aphorisms
Sophia Julin – Algebra I: Functions
10th grade:
“Andy” Allison Campbell – Fundamentals of Design 2: Art & Ceramics
Ethan Dupree – World History
11th grade:
Adan Barbosa – English 11: Communications
Kylie Charfen-Horvath – English 11: Communications
Isabelle Ibarra & Sandra Medina – Biology: Vehicle Emissions Website
12th grade:
Michael Garcia – Government/English 12: Live Debate
Sophia Quintanilla – Architecture: Western Museum of Flight
Adan Victoria – Architecture: Western Museum of Flight
Da Vinci Design is not the only Da Vinci school that requires students to complete a POL at the end of each semester or academic year. Every school within the Da Vinci network has this requirement, as it’s one of the ways students demonstrate to their teachers, peers, and families their mastery of essential skills, concepts, and applied knowledge.
The mastery these award winners demonstrated was truly exceptional. Not only are all their classes able to satisfy California public university A-G requirements, but given our project-based learning model, these students also demonstrated mastery of essential skills, concepts, and applied knowledge around advanced topics such:
- Understanding the experience of migrants, immigrants, and refugees through research and by interviewing someone who falls into that category and then writing a creative non-fiction story about the person’s journey;
- Studying the meaning behind famous quotes, written by historical figures, and relating their words (and their perceived meaning) to one’s own contemporary experiences;
- Tracking the immigration patterns of specific groups in order to demonstrate mastery of statistical analysis and graphing techniques and concepts;
- Studying sculpture artists over time, learning the craft and application techniques required to create sculptures, and creating a sculpture applying what was learned;
- Preparing for panel and group interviews by answering the personal inquiry questions that are asked on University of California (UC) applications for college and delivering responses before a panel of teachers, peers, and adult community members;
- Researching a specific topic on how, or if, human activity has directly impacted climate change and building websites that demonstrate students research and mastery;
- Participating in organized and structured live debates with peers on contemporary topics using rational, evidence-based research to construct arguments and deep communication skills to deliver arguments convincingly and respectfully; and
- Developing new architectural designs for the Western Museum of Flight in Torrance, CA, including listening to museum director’s requests, conceptualizing designs, problem-solving design issues, creating schematics of the design, creating video renderings of finished design, and pitching the designs to the museum
The quality of students’ presentations and the vastness of the topics covered were truly impressive.
Congratulations to all Da Vinci students who completed the last round of POLs. The dedication, creativity, and hard work of all Da Vincians—teachers, students, and staff—is inspiring, appreciated, and needed in this world. We are so grateful for you!
