Our students will create a personal coat-of-arms, to display their family name, a special place, an animal that represents them, a passion, a book genre, a movie, something EXTRA , and a personal motto. The order does not matter.

PROJECT 13

Tunnels, mazes and more

In prior years, students designed tunnels, a classroom maze, and other interactive displays for the community. They also performed original skits, songs, and poetry on stage. The challenge each year is to come up with something original and inspiring; a reflection of learning and personal experiences. What will your verse be? CARPE DIEM!

Old Indian Cave?

DEAD POETS SOCIETY

​"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." ― John Keating (Dead Poet's Society)

THE STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPHS OF THE TEENAGE EXPERIENCE

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” ​​― e. e. cummings

Personal Coat-of-Arms

Project 13 focuses on the varied experiences of NEW teenagers, as seen through their own eyes. Students will start from personal experience, then journey down various pathways in order to learn about the multitude of teenage experiences across the globe. Each "pathway" has been curated by students, so that they not only have voice and choice within the project, they also have agency in the project design process. Our resource list includes fiction and nonfiction books, articles, films, music and poetry. Students can choose how far THEY want to travel down each pathway. They will also discover that many of the pathways intersect, creating new opportunities for critical thinking and collaboration.

ALUMNI
"CARPE DIEM"
TATTOOS

D.P.S. 2022

URBAN ART

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

Students will begin this writing project by making several decisions. First, they need to choose an issue that affects teenagers. Project 13 resources will facilitate their deep-dive into the specific issue they choose. Students will spend six weeks researching, which involves reading 2+ books, several articles and watching documentaries. They will take careful notes, develop a thesis, collect evidence and organize their arguments. Students will then work on a pre-writing activity, meant to solidify their arguments. The dialogue is a fictional back-and-forth conversation between two or more positions on the issue they chose to study. Finally, students will write, revise, edit, publish and record their argumentative essay. This is meant to be a culminating writing piece for Project 13.