The AARK Program: Channeling Creativity

Maverick Free proudly displays his final creation which he hopes will withstand the force of the Big Bad Wolf

Legacy Christian Academy is excited about its newest curricular expansion, the Advanced Academic Resources for Knowledge, or AARK, program. School leadership always search for options to enhance and diversify our student experiences. Over the years, parents repeatedly mentioned the need for an advanced program that would make it possible for students to collaborate and explore more STEM-based projects. AARK was the answer.

The AARK program had been a work in progress for several years as LCA leadership sought a way to provide more opportunities for students who are highly gifted in different-ability areas. A committee composed of the previous

Mrs. Bratcher works with Logan DeWald to approve his final design in his engineering notebook

Head of School, Bill McGee; Chief Academic Officer Daniel Townsley; and Early Learning Campus Principal Tiffany McCollum began to meet to discuss the best program to offer.

The name AARK has a twofold significance: It was important to find a name that has a biblical tie to it, and AARK is not only biblical, but also represents new beginnings, so it felt like an ideal fit. LCA leadership tapped Julie Bratcher to head the program. She’s experienced in teaching gifted children, having received her 30-hours Texas Certification for Gifted Instruction. She previously taught at a magnet school in Richardson ISD, and served for five years as the gifted cluster teacher for third grade in Frisco ISD. She now works with AARK students in Grades 1–4 to channel their creativity into real-world situations.

Now Mrs. Bratcher is in her second year as head of AARK. One of the critical components to the success and sustainability of the program, she says, is developing competent problem-solvers. She teaches lessons on deductive reasoning and executive functioning skills, and the class

navigates the design process in every unit. These excited learners channel their creativity by focusing on the 4 C’s: communication, collaboration, creative problem-solving, and critical thinking.

Logan DeWald is a fourth-grade AARK student. “I always get excited on Thursdays because that’s when I go to AARK,” he says. “It’s a fun way to learn more about each subject. It gives me confidence to learn like this and teaches me that I can do anything.”

Students are encouraged to work together, to think outside of the box, and to devise unique solutions to the challenges they face. In this class, Mrs. Bratcher not only allows but also encourages the students to give her their answer, not necessarily the “right” answer.

In her classrooms, Mrs. Bratcher wants her students to know that there’s no such thing as failure — there are only learning experiences. For example, she says, the pioneers who settled the region suffered numerous setbacks, but through perseverance, grit, and creativity they came up with a solution to every problem.

She has some activities planned for her students this year that should pique their interest and spark their curiosity. “We’ll be doing some experiments with plants,” she says, “and some with the type of things you can find in a kitchen to build a good bubble wand. We’ll also be figuring out different ways to build a bridge, along with what materials would make a strong bridge and what materials would make a weak one.”

Maverick Free ’32 is already pumped: “I’m an engineer,” he says, “and I want to Grant Stallsworth tests the power of wind as a force on a pencil to see how far he could get it to go

go to A&M. In the AARK program we’re learning a lot of engineering, science, and physics. I have a lot of big ideas and I can use them in this class.” His favorite project in Mrs. Bratcher’s class last year was when his teacher brought in a leaf blower and put a wolf head over the nozzle. As in The Three Little Pigs, the students’ task was to build a house that would withstand the air from the leaf blower/big bad wolf. Maverick’s house was the only one that survived the huffing and puffing!

Lower School Principal Rachel Constantinescu says she’s delighted with AARK: “This rigorous curriculum challenges students in new ways. Our goal at Legacy is to individualize education, and this program means we can maximize students’ success and partner with their parents to provide them with the best education.” The curriculum has been designed by Project Lead The Way (PLTW), which provides learning experiences through activity-, project-, and problem-based curricula in the areas of science, engineering, math, and biomedics.

Students were invited to join the program if they had a high score on the LCA entry assessment or scored high on the CogAT battery. These tests evaluate a student’s reasoning ability as developed through experiences both within and outside of school. In its inaugural year, the AARK program had 40 students, between 10 and 12 at one time in the classroom, which was a manageable number but still facilitated project-based learning.

AARK has since grown to 76 children in the primary grades, and includes students in the Spanish Immersion program.