Stem Education

List of 3 items.

• Giles Institute

  As we at Augusta Prep live our mission in the present, we are mindful that we are called to prepare our students for their future. Our current students are graduating in the midst of the “4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION,” which is being driven by high-speed Internet, cloud technology, artificial intelligence, automation, 3D printing, and big data analytics.
  
  With such rapid changes across industries, how can schools keep up and make sure students are prepared for the world beyond college?
   

  In response to this challenge, we have developed a vision for a unique future-facing sciences and engineering building that prepares students for these forces and the workplaces of the future. To better equip each and every Augusta Prep student to skeptically interrogate and improve our common world, the new W. Rodger Giles Institute for Inquiry will provide new programming that is more interwoven, inspiring, individualized, illuminating, and iterative than the sciences education of our past. Think less “sit and get” content-heavy lectures and more “hands on” skills work.

  
  This new facility will be the arena in which our students sharpen their skills for college and the workplace - design thinking, prototyping, problem solving, programming, and presenting their novel concepts and innovative creations. This facility will be one of a kind in the Augusta area and not only host traditional science education (biology, chemistry, physics), but expand our technological sciences (coding, robotics, engineering) as well as venture into the more futuristic science learning tools using digital fabrication (3D printing) and augmented/virtual reality. These tools, like virtual reality devices or 3D printers, will be available for use by all our teachers and students, not just those enrolled in required or elective science courses.

  
  Why is this so important?

  • In our Lower School two-year-old room, we have the Class of 2038 on campus right now. We believe this facility and the programming there will help prepare them for their future – not our present or past.
  • We have amazing faculty delivering great programming in dated spaces from the 20th century which were not designed for robotics, engineering, forensics, coding, or virtual reality.
  • We want to draw student talent as Prep will be the only school in the area with such distinctive places and programming.
  • This building, and what it embodies, mirrors the future of medical/cyber/tech/industrial Augusta.

• ARISS event

  On August 31, 2023, 10 Augusta Prep students spoke with NASA Astronaut Steve Bowen as part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. This STEM education program was one of a kind in the Augusta area,
  
  

  Augusta Prep was selected in December by Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) to contact ISS crew members via amateur radio. Augusta Prep was one of seven schools in the United States selected for this STEM program.
  
  

  Augusta Prep Upper/Middle School Technology Teacher Mary White submitted the proposal in 2022 to ARISS. Members of the Augusta Prep faculty and staff underwent orientation to learn more about the process for communicating with ISS members. 
  
  Media members like WJBF AND WRDW covered the event for their respective news stations.
  
  See video from the event on OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

• Digital Landscape Lab

  With help from a challenge grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation, Augusta Prep is installing a transformative Digital Landscape Lab inside the W. Rodger Giles Institute for Inquiry, opening in January 2024. 
  
  

  The Digital Landscape Lab will be an immersive learning experience for students, engaging them through the use of augmented, virtual and extended reality or “XR."  The lab will feature an Elumenati GeoDome Panorama, providing an immersive projection experience which doesn’t require headsets
  
  "We are so grateful for our own donors who provided the matching funds to earn the E.E. Ford Foundation grant to fund and endow the Digital Landscape Lab in the new W. Rodger Giles Institute for Inquiry," Augusta Prep Head of School Derrick Willard said. "This custom designed virtual reality lab will give Augusta Prep access to immersive learning experiences available at no other PK-12 school in the area."
  
  Read more about the Digital Landscape Lab on the E.E. FORD FOUNDATION WEBSITE.