The program engages students through the inquiry-based curriculum with its “hands-on, minds-on” experiential activities. Each academy chooses a customized curriculum from a large offering of peer-reviewed learning opportunities in each STEAM area, such as: Newton’s Laws and Bernoulli’s principle, robotics, and engineering as they use the computer to design space stations, all-terrain vehicles, and submersibles. Mathematics is embedded throughout the curriculum and students use metric measurement, estimation, calculation geometry, and data analysis to solve questions. Teamwork is stressed as they work together to explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate concepts.
Military volunteers apply abstract principles to real-world situations by leading tours and giving lectures on the use of STEAM in different settings and careers. Since the academies are located in different branches of the military this experience is highly varied. Students may discuss how chemical fires are extinguished, learn how injured individuals are transported, or explore the cockpit of an F-18 or the interior of a submarine.