What is different about Life Academy? Principal Aryn Bowman credits much of the school’s success to its small size, social justice emphasis, rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum, and a deeply committed teaching staff. We explore the third of those four “keys to success” below.
As a health and bioscience school, Life Academy takes an experiential, interdisciplinary approach to its curriculum. That approach, according to Bowman is “what the school is built on.” Each year students participate in a year-long “defense” project where they tackle topics like the civic, ethical, and scientific implications of trying a youth offender in the adult criminal justice system. These projects have two goals: students grapple with rigorous bioscience and medical curriculum and also develop higher-level critical thinking and analytic skills to prepare them for college.
