Student Sample POL Script
Hello and welcome, my name is --------- ----------- and I am currently in the ninth grade attending Da
Vinci School of Science. During my time here at Da Vinci, I have become a more confident presenter and
grown intellectually as a student. During my POL I will discuss multiple topics. First I will tell you about the Da
Vinci Olympics Host Proposal and my involvement there within. Second I will tell you about Propaganda within
advertisements and my counter to a propaganda advertisement. Third, in relation to my engineering class I
will tell you about our project creating trebuchets and quadratic equations. Fourth I will tell you about our
project concerning electrical circuits. Fifth I will tell you about my Notan art project which dealt with the
eastern philosophy of light and dark. Finally, I will tell you about how I have grown as a student and why I
should be advanced to the tenth grade.
The Da Vinci Olympics Host Proposals were held in early April. There were seven teacher teams which
each chose a country to represent; my core team chose Zimbabwe. The Da Vinci Olympics were used as a
medium to research different cultures and problems they might be confronting. I learned a lot from being part
of the Host Proposal team; we did more in-depth research than the rest of the class to further understand
how corruption and disease have truncated Zimbabwe’s infrastructure. For the host proposal I had to become
a more effective presenter, with my most prominent issue being using “um” as a word to keep from being
silent or as an exclamation of thought. I needed to improvise in some portions of our proposal where I
stumbled over information. During the question phase at the end of the proposal we faced a question that
covered a topic that we had not covered in our research, I learned how to respectfully and professionally
explain how we had not focused on that during our preparations for the presentation. Our core team ended
up being the group that was chosen as the hosts of the Olympic Games. This project was important because it
gave us a more interactive and fun way to research Zimbabwean culture and how, if the Olympics were hosted
there, it could help the country. Now I’d like to speak about my anti-propaganda advertisement that I created.
In our humanities class we studied propaganda within advertisements and war posters. We started off
by looking at propaganda posters from WWII, such as this one *show picture on screen* we uncovered the
hidden meanings of the words and images within it. We soon moved on to modern advertising, we started
every day with a warm-up in which we would try to take the propaganda away from the image and write
analytical paragraphs about the truth behind the ads. As we developed the skill of identifying propaganda, we
each picked an advertisement from anywhere we wanted and started to deconstruct them. After taking away
the propaganda within the ads we created drafts of an anti-ad, which would show the true message of the
marketing. We continued to work on our anti-ads and when we finished our final drafts, they were hung out in
front of our classrooms for anyone to view them. I chose the Bud Light “Drinkability” ad and took what I had
learned in class and used it to show the truth behind the phrase “Drinkability”. I started out with a visual of a
man lying on a couch unconscious and inebriated with beer bottles surrounding him along with a woman
walking out the door. The caption says “Survivability. It’s questionable.” I then placed arrows depicting certain
health risks that have been linked scientifically to alcohol consumption. This project has provided me new
perspectives on both print and digital media advertisements. I am now able to identify propaganda within ads
as well as being able to take apart the meanings behind them. Now I’d like to transition to the engineering
aspect of my presentation.
Student Sample POL Script
For engineering class we underwent a project called “to aim or not to aim” in which we created
working trebuchets. A trebuchet is a sort of catapult which uses a swinging lever on an off center fulcrum
along with a mass which when released causes the forces to become unbalanced and cause the trebuchet to
launch. During this project I learned about quadratic equations and parabolas along with many skills which can
help me throughout my high school experience and life. I learned how to use PVC pipe cutters correctly to
ensure straight cuts. We used the vertex of our golf ball’s parabolic path to create a mathematical model of its
trajectory; I also used the vertex to convert the parabola into a standard form equation. There are two types
of quadratic equation, standard form and vertex form. Standard form is ax2 + bx + c = 0 and vertex form is, a(xh)2 +k. This is the website which I created to illustrate my learning throughout the project. I used adobe
Dreamweaver to construct this web site; I created the pages from the model provided to us by Mario. There is
an index page, a page with a link to my instructions for assembly of a trebuchet, a page with a link to my
group’s launch video, a page with a model of converting a vertex form equation to standard form and a page
with my group’s quadratic equation informational video. Now I’m going to change topics and talk about our
Lights up project.
In engineering class we had a mini-project in which we created a circuit containing within it, 3 parallel
circuits. The circuits within the main circuit were comprised of one with two LEDs, one with three LEDs and
one with four LEDs. To prepare for this we had to first do many calculations in class to teach us both the
formulas and the application of each of them. I learned Ohm’s law, V = IR, where V is voltage, I is current and R
is resistance. Also during the project we used P = IV Where P is power, I is current and where V is voltage.
After doing calculations in class we moved on to creating the circuits and mounting them onto half-folders. I
had to calculate the resistance needed to drop the three volt power source down to two volts for each
different circuit; which is the highest voltage the LEDs can endure. Now I will speak about the art portion of
my presentation.
During this year I feel as though I have had very strong test and quiz taking, I was rarely nervous and I
feel like it shows in the majority of the grades I received on the assessments. I also believe that I have done
well in working in groups. Using collaboration to get work done increases productivity by having group
members constructively critique our writing and ideas. Some things I feel were weaknesses for me this year
were essays and being able to pay attention in class. I think essays were a struggle for me because I’m overcritical and I nit-pick my writing until I feel it is competent, which is rarely. As for paying attention, my mind
constantly wanders even during topics which I find interesting. I believe I have, towards the end of this year,
started to focus in more during our lessons which has helped me greatly in bringing my grades back up to A’s
and B’s from incompletes. The way I have used the Da Vinci Habits of Mind has improved greatly since the
start of the year, I have persevered to get missed work turned in and when my grades started to slip.
Collaboration by working in groups to get more work done. Perspective by learning how to look at both sides
of problems and searching deeper into the meaning of things. And evidence by being able to do more effective
research and being able to sort through false or unhelpful sources. I’m ready to move on to the tenth grade
because I’m ready for new challenges that the tenth grade can present to me and because I have grown as a
student due to what I have learned this year.