Our Academy
ASK is different from any other school. Our scholars learn the Attitude, Skills, and Knowledge to grow and develop into responsible and successful adults. Like no other school in the state of New Mexico, scholars choose one of two Career Pathways when they enroll. This selection forms a large percentage of their elective courses for the academic year. Then ASK strengthens the scholar for those STEM careers through the coursework required in each elective.
Not only that, but scholars at The ASK Academy learn about the core behind our vision and mission with each class. Here's how:
Attitude
ASK will:
- Create new ways to engage adolescent scholars and to prepare them for a successful life of learning and achievement.
- Create strong nurturing relationships with students, which is the number one motivator for learning.
- Create a culture in which students feel safe to interact with staff and are free from distractions regarding the challenging issues they face as teenagers, and the freedom to develop their self-confidence and self-worth.
- Create strong communication with parents and guardians regarding students’ academic, social, and emotional growth.
- Create a culture of teachers and administration that desire to be with high school students, that have a passion to continually seek and provide development opportunities, and provide resources that will motivate students to strive for continual improvement academically.
Skills
ASK will:
- Create a hands-on, innovative curriculum that applies the knowledge gained from the Common Core Standards as they apply to STEM elective programs.
- Create projects that require the utilization of multiple content area knowledge, demonstrating the needs of all content to problem-solve in real-world situations.
- Create project opportunities that collaborate ASK scholars with STEM industry and university partners.
Knowledge
ASK will:
- Provide all scholars with the opportunities to learn the Core Common Standards to utilize through project-based learning experiences in their Career Pathway programs.
- Provide scholars with unprecedented STEM knowledge needed to strengthen their opportunities to succeed in their chosen STEM careers.
Project-based Learning
Project-based learning is a unique approach to teaching and learning. Rather than the teacher guiding classroom discussions and activities, students make decisions within a prescribed framework. They are presented a problem without a predetermined solution and then must work together to design a process for reaching a solution. They are responsible for accessing and managing the information they gather as evaluation takes place continuously—both by the student and the teacher. Students reflect on what they are doing throughout the process and develop a final product/solution in a classroom environment that tolerates error and change.
Generally speaking, students engaged in a project:
- Have some choice in deciding what they work on
- Plan their own project
- Participate in defining criteria and rubrics to assess their project
- Solve problems they encounter while working on their project
- Make some sort of presentation of their project
