In addition to a traditional high school curriculum, students will have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and experiences through rigorous applications of their learning.  We focus on developing students to become problem solvers who address real-world issues. 

Stem Pathways

Each student completes their choice of one of three STEM pathways (Health Sciences, Engineering, or Information Technology).

Research

Research is an important component of our program. In 11^th grade, students take the IA Research class where they work in small teams to complete a research project. Students can choose to take AP Research in 12^th grade, which is a completely independent research project.

Flex Fridays

Innovation Academy encourages our students and faculty to think outside the box; and our schedule and environment encourages that kind of innovation and flexible thinking. Monday through Thursday, students follow a traditional public-school schedule taking 7 academic courses with one additional period for lunch.  This leaves Fridays open for a variety of in-depth, hands-on learning opportunities, which we call Flex Fridays.

Each Flex Friday features a particular pathway and often includes cross-curricular workshops, field trips, and experiences outside of what’s usually taught in the traditional day-to-day classroom.  This is also an opportunity to bring in Industry Specialist in the fields of Engineering, IT and Health Science to run workshops on specific skills, information about the industry, or support an already scheduled workshop based on their expertise. 

Students attend at least three Flex Fridays a semester on their designated pathway day with Freshmen attending on their designated Cohort day.

A Sampling of Topics Students Experience on Flex Fridays

As our students engage with our curriculum, work through their career pathways, and solve difficult and complex problems with what they have learned in class, they will gain the skills they need to be successful in the world after Innovation Academy.

The Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC) is a unit within the Office of the Provost at Georgia Tech. CEISMC serves as the primary connection point between Georgia Tech faculty and students and the preK-12 STEM education community.

CEISMC plays a key role in achieving the vision set forth in the Commission on Creating the Next (CNE) report by reducing the barriers between preK-12 and higher education by offering intensive, innovative professional development to practicing teachers, creating highly engaging STEM in-school and extracurricular STEM experiences for K-12 students.  

Fulton County Schools and Innovation Academy have partnered with CEISMC to create a dynamic and rigorous set of challenges and projects that are designed to incorporate core standards and relevance to learning.  Students will use design thinking to solve these complex problems.