Academic Overview

Framed by the outcomes and values of the four Experiential Learning Pathways,  classes and courses at Upper Mississippi Academy incorporate a “teacher as designer approach” to promote student achievement and academic growth as well as to create an optimal environment for interdisciplinary instruction and multi-dimensional learning experiences.

Classes and courses are rigorous, relevant, and relational and, curriculum is built around the elements of experiential learning. Students engage in projects that:

• are interdisciplinary, self-directed and long-term;
• are connected to the local community;
• involve community experts;
• provide an opportunity for experimentation, failure, reflection and improvement;
• ask students to seek, create and/or transform knowledge;
• allow a final product with many potential forms;
• document the learning process; and
• are presented to the community by the creator(s).

Visit the middle school and high school pages for specific academic offerings in those grades.