DaVinci Program

Learning in the DaVinci Program  

Our year-9 DaVinci program is inspired by Leonardo DaVinci, who lived his life as a scientist, artist and inventor. In addition to their core subjects, students will continue their learning in Mathematics, English, Science, History, Sport and Positive Education. Year-9 students undertake an inquiry learning project across two subjects: Environmental Inquiry and Creative Endeavour. The project provides an opportunity for students to investigate deeply issues that they are passionate about through a structured approach to learning that allows students to define, discover, hypothesise, design, create and evaluate.

In Environmental Inquiry, students explore environmental issues from a humanities and scientific perspective. In Creative Endeavour, students use their research and investigation to design and create an artistic response using various art forms to raise awareness, communicate their message, and provoke a response from the viewer. Every student’s artistic response is featured each semester in our DaVinci Exhibition evening. 

The DaVinci program is enriched through creative electives, where students pursue a study of the arts including the performing, visual and liberal arts.

In semester 1, students are asked to take on the role of an entrepreneur. They investigate a product, exploring its life cycle from resource to product, and then finally as waste or recycled materials. They explore environmental issues along the way and propose solutions. Finally, they present their findings to a Panel made up of teachers and parents. 

In semester 2, students explore important environmental issues and generate a series of questions to explore the issue from different angles. Additionally, students analyse what action is possible to support change and how to make a positive contribution. 

Throughout the program, students are immersed in the natural environment, and involved in action-based learning tasks such as data collection, fieldwork and community action projects both locally and globally. 

Guiding Principles of the DaVinci Program

The development of the DaVinci Program is underpinned by several guiding principles:

• a strong focus on the environment, involving the study of environmental philosophy and ethics through an interdisciplinary approach to learning.

• a strong focus on the study of the arts, including visual, performing and liberal arts.

• prioritising student-led community engagement projects that give our students a global perspective and challenge them to make a genuine contribution to improving their environment.

• research on deep learning as a basis for curriculum design and delivery, underpinned by creative and meaningful use of technology to transform learning.

• immersing students in the natural environment helps them to obtain a global perspective, whilst developing respect for different peoples and cultures.

Da Vinci Campus

Our DaVinci program takes place at our Environmental Arts Campus, 40 Bay Street, Port Melbourne and has been purpose-built to complement our innovative curriculum, which now also features the Gatehouse marine centre at Princes Pier.

Our Environmental Arts Campus was built in 2016 with the fundamental vision of being the distinctive home to the DaVinci Project for our year-9 students. This campus allows students to study the environment, engage with our community and also to reinforce Albert Park College’s credentials as a leading learning institution and further our progress towards a zero carbon school.

In 2019 we have been able to expand this campus to include the Gatehouse, located on Princes Pier. This campus is dedicated to the pursuit of environmental inquiry and provides a base for students to be involved in action-based research and environmental data collection and analysis.