Showcasing Student Work at Exhibition Nights
We had another fantastic month of Exhibitions at Da Vinci Connect TK-8 and Da Vinci Connect High, as well as a grade-level exhibition at Da Vinci Design. During Exhibition Night, families and our community come together to publicly witness and celebrate what students have learned and how they have translated their learning into projects that tackle real-world scenarios or solve real-world problems.
At Da Vinci Connect TK-8, students in Core 2 collaborated with the Del Aire Neighborhood Association on a campaign to plant more trees in the community. Students did research about different tree varieties (Chinese Pistache, Strawberry Tree, Golden Rain, Seedless Fern Pine, Brisbane Box, Crepe Myrtle, Little Gem Magnolia, Australian Willow), whether they were deciduous, drought resistant, and non-invasive roots, then built 3D models, recreating the environment that the trees exist in. A banner displayed in front of campus had a QR code for people to sign up to donate trees to the Del Aire community which has had over 25% of its curb-side trees cut down and not replaced over the past several years.
Inspired by the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary offshore of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, Da Vinci Connect 6th graders in Rita Bouchard’s Core 4 class learned about marine life ecosystems, including the perspectives of human needs, the impact on ocean ecology, and the importance of established marine sanctuaries. Students chose an ocean ecosystem, then designed and created clay structures or watercolor paintings that represented their chosen ecosystem. They used elements of design and their understanding of the interconnection between the organisms represented. Students also wrote letters to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in support of the proposed Chumash marine sanctuary.
For English, 6th grade students shared the original screenplays they’d written and movie posters they created using Canva and AI technology.
At Da Vinci Connect High, 10th grade students in Amanda Mendoza’s World History class learned about totalitarian governments during WWII and created a museum exhibit to showcase the rise, function, fall, and human cost of these dictators. Each project included various deliverables such as a physical exhibit demonstrating a profound understanding of the chosen country and topic; a clear, well-researched script that effectively communicates key points about the exhibit; an online version of the exhibit; and a citation page which documented all resources used for the project.
On Dec. 20, 9th grade students at Da Vinci Design displayed and presented their lamp projects that were part of a special grade-level exhibition across English, Spanish, Art, Math, and Physics classes that told the stories of migrants, immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.
An interdisciplinary project across five classes, students made the lamp bases and ran the wiring in physics class. In art, they designed the lampshades. In English, students interviewed somebody who is a migrant, immigrant, refugee or asylum seeker and turned their interview into creative nonfiction. In Spanish, students created Venn diagrams where they compared their migrant’s homeland vs. the U.S. In Math, students looked at the cost and challenges of the actual migration.
Chace Davis, a 9th grade student from Da Vinci Design, interviewed his aunt who migrated from Ethiopia to Italy and then America to escape a war when she was just 14 years old. Chace was so excited about learning about her story that he wrote a 17-page narrative. “This project has been really fulfilling. I don’t feel like migration is talked about enough. If there is ever talk about migration, it’s negative most of the time. I feel like their stories should be shared more positively. These people are not statistics, they are people, they have feelings, they’re like everybody,” Chace said.
“A lot of students have now said they have a much deeper appreciation for the family members they’ve interviewed and for immigrants as a whole because they never really thought about what immigrants go through until they interview people and find out the real hardships they have not just getting here, but once they’re here,” said Jason White, the English and Composition 9 teacher at Da Vinci Design.
