"You can't teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it." - Seymour Papert A Culture of High Expectation
Rather starting with a discussion of basic concepts, students at THE DAVINCI LEADERSHIP ACADEMY will begin by investigating the nature of the world around them in both the arts and the sciences. They will ask questions. They will use their senses. They will use their powers of reasoning. They will use their powers of intuition. With supportive guidance from parents, teachers, and community mentors, they will solve real problems in the real world, to grow in knowledge, sensitivity, and confidence. We call it DISCOVERY LEARNING and our goal is to engage students to be the architects of their own future by supporting a spirit of inquiry, which lasts a lifetime. By creating a culture of high expectation, collaboration, and service, we will prepare students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex global society.
"The goal of learning is to discover for oneself." --Jerome Brunner
"The goal of learning is to discover for oneself." --Jerome Brunner
A Student-Centered Approach
Is learning a noun or a verb? How you answer may reveal a lot about your philosophy of education. Learning as a noun suggests education is content to be absorbed: students in seats, teacher with textbooks in the front of the room: the guardians of important facts and information. Learning as a verb by contrast, treats education as an activity: the work of scientists, mathematicians, sociologists, writers, and artists; pursuing questions, testing hypotheses, and conducting investigations to better understand the world and their role in it. Thinking of education only as a noun misses the excitement of Discovery. Thinking of learning as a verb creates opportunities for students and teachers to engage the world, build their creative and critical thinking skills, and discover their purpose. Discovery Education is fundamentally about learning as a verb and encourages curiosity by helping students to refine their questions. Discovery Learning embraces the interdisciplinary nature of the real world.
"I hear...I forget. I see...I remember. I do...I understand."--Ancient Chinese Proverb
Discovery as a Process
Discovery Learning engages students in the process of hypothesizing, testing concluding, and re-testing. They begin with observations. They pose questions. They examine what is already known. They plan their investigation. They propose a Discovery Plan. They use tools. They analyze and interpret their data. They propose answers, explanations, solutions, or make predictions, and they communicate their findings. Discovery Learning requires students identify their assumptions, and use higher level thinking skills to consider alternative explanations.
Discovery Learning engages students in the process of hypothesizing, testing concluding, and re-testing. They begin with observations. They pose questions. They examine what is already known. They plan their investigation. They propose a Discovery Plan. They use tools. They analyze and interpret their data. They propose answers, explanations, solutions, or make predictions, and they communicate their findings. Discovery Learning requires students identify their assumptions, and use higher level thinking skills to consider alternative explanations.
Discovery as a Strategy
To facilitate Discovery Learning, teachers must rethink their classroom practices. They no longer hold the role of purveyor of knowledge, and students are no longer the recipients of their knowledge. Instead, teachers guide students in taking responsibility for their own learning. Discovery Learning seeks answers to student-generated questions, enhances attention to detail, promotes hands-on investigation, help students evaluate their findings in the real world, and analyzes patterns, while promoting flexible thinking. The goal of Discovery Learning is to create students who are prepared for real work in the real world as curious, detail oriented, analytical, flexible thinkers. Discovery Learning teaches students how to think, rather than what to think.
Discovery as a Skill
Good questions are those that have no obvious “right” answer. Good questions push students toward higher level thinking skills and problem solving. Good questions are generated from the students’ interests. Good questions cannot be answered easily, and sustain student interest. Good questions reflect the complex, inter-disciplinary nature of the real world. Good questions generate multiple questions to guide the student's Discovery Study Plan. While we are unable to anticipate everything students will need to know in the 21st Century, we can prepare them with the skills and confidence to Discover new answers.
Discovery as a Laboratory
Rather than simply reading a book or listening to a lecture, students make their own findings like real scientists, mathematicians, sociologists, writers or artists. Discovery Learning trains students, not to imitate the work of others, but to innovate through real-work in the real-world. Students explore their questions in state-of-the art learning laboratories, and the natural learning laboratories beyond classroom walls.
Research-Based Discovery
Incorporating the best practices of:
Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond
Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond
Stanford University
Small Schools
Dr. Peter Senge
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Learning Institutions
Dr. Robert Lee Moore
University of Texas
Discovery Math & Mentoring
Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson
University of Virginia
Differentiated Education
Dr. Howard Gardner
Harvard University
Multiple Intelligences
Dr. Shari Tishman
Harvard University
Project Zero & Artful Thinking
Dr. Elliot Eisner
Stanford University
Arts Integration
Dr. Benjamin Bloom
University of Chicago
Thinking Skills & Talent Development
Dr. Maria Montessori
Secondary Pedagogy
John Dewey
University of Chicago
Student-Centered Learning
Rudolph Steiner
Waldorf Education
Jean-Michel Cousteau's
Ocean Futures Society
The United States Department of Education
The National Endowment for the Art
The Coalition of Essential Schools
The Henry Ford Learning Institut
The National Science Foundatio
The National Geographic Society
The Kennedy Center for the Art
The US Green Building Counci
The Prince William Network
The Discovery Channel
Big Picture Schools
The Green School
LEEDing by Example
THE DAVINCI CENTER will model sustainable living through the operations of the LEED certified campus, through an interdisciplinary curriculum, and through authentic experiences in the out-of-doors and the real-world. THE DAVINCI CENTER will serve as an international model for sustainable living while preparing students with the creative thinking and problem solving skills required to become leaders in the 21st Century. Discovery Learning will be student-centered.
An Academy of Discovery
THE DAVINCI LEADERSHIP ACADEMY will be designed as a small learning community to enhance the connection between students, school, families, and the community. 480 students in grades 9-12 will be divided in communities of 120 students, and taught in classrooms of 15 students. On entry, students will be assigned a faculty advisor who will work with them throughout their entire high school career to promote personalize academic and enrichment experiences. THE DAVINCI LEADERSHIP ACADEMY will emphasize place-based education, connecting students to the natural environments of the region. On entrance, each student will be provided with a laptop computer. THE DAVINCI LEADERSHIP ACADEMY will utilize the Internet to connect students to global study groups and online learning. All classrooms and laboratories will feature state-of-the-art learning technologies.
A Week at the Academy
Monday through Thursday, students will begin their day with a Yoga/Pilates class to develop a lifelong habit of health. Their academic day will include two three-hour inter-disciplinary Math/Science and Language Arts/Social Studies blocks, to provide in-depth opportunities for project-based learning. Following their core academic classes, students will have the opportunity to take master classes in the Arts and Sciences for dual-enrollment college credit.
Each Friday student-run enterprises, supervised by a faculty advisor and community mentor, will be open to the public. These Enterprises will include: an Organic Farm Market, a Visiting Artist/Lecture Series, and an Artists Market. Students will use their Enterprise earnings to purchase their laptop computer, contirbute to a Senior Service Trip. Graduation will include the presentation of Senior Projects, designed to help each student discover his or her purpose.
Each Friday student-run enterprises, supervised by a faculty advisor and community mentor, will be open to the public. These Enterprises will include: an Organic Farm Market, a Visiting Artist/Lecture Series, and an Artists Market. Students will use their Enterprise earnings to purchase their laptop computer, contirbute to a Senior Service Trip. Graduation will include the presentation of Senior Projects, designed to help each student discover his or her purpose.
THE DaVINCI ACADEMY
MONDAY-THURSDAY
MONDAY-THURSDAY
ZERO HOUR
7:15-8am & 8-8:45 am
Yoga/Pilates
7:15-8am & 8-8:45 am
Yoga/Pilates
Academic Study Lab
CORE CURRICULUM
9am – Noon Morning Block
Math / Science Interdisciplinary Learning
9am – Noon Morning Block
Math / Science Interdisciplinary Learning
or Language Arts/Social Studies Interdisciplinary Learning
LUNCH Noon – 1pm
1-4pm Afternoon Block
Math / Science Interdisciplinary Learnin
1-4pm Afternoon Block
Math / Science Interdisciplinary Learnin
or Language Arts/Social Studies Interdisciplinary Learning
4-5:30 ELECTIVES
(Open to District Students)
Monday/Wednesday
andTuesday/Thursday
Level I – Open Enrollment
Level II – By Audition/Application
Level I – Open Enrollment
Level II – By Audition/Application
Dual-Enrollment College Credit Available
FRIDAYs
9am-4pm ADVISORIES & ENTERPRISES
Student-Managed Box Office, Book Store, Art Gallery, Lecture Series,
FRIDAYs
9am-4pm ADVISORIES & ENTERPRISES
Student-Managed Box Office, Book Store, Art Gallery, Lecture Series,
& Organic Farm Market
4-5 pm ORGANIC FARM MARKET
7-9 pm FIRSTFRIDAYs
4-5 pm ORGANIC FARM MARKET
7-9 pm FIRSTFRIDAYs
Visiting Artist & Lecture Series
