Be Heard. Be Innovative. Be You.

Global Impact STEM Academy (GISA) is the first STEM school of its kind in the nation. GISA focuses on career-readiness and preparing students for jobs in bioscience fields, like food and agriculture, environmental studies, healthcare, and energy.

Global Impact STEM Academy is a designated Independent STEM school approved by ODE’s STEM subcommittee on October 15, 2012, that currently serves 700 students in grades 7-12.  As an Independent STEM school, GISA takes a unique and innovative approach to its educational delivery methods. Through fostering positive relationships with students, parents, and industry leaders, while providing a hands-on and relevant approach to its content, GISA delivers quality inquiry based and project based learning.  

To find relevancy in all that students do, GISA uses the agriculture industry to foster real-world and applicable instruction for students across disciplines.  To that point, a cross-disciplinary approach is taken with the realization that problems do not simply occur in just the content areas of Math, Science, Social Studies, English, and the arts.  

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Middle School

Our middle school, serving grades 7-8, sparks curiosity and fosters critical thinking. Through project-based learning and hands-on activities, students explore real-world challenges and develop innovative solutions. Equipped with industry-standard technology, our students are empowered to think creatively and collaborate effectively, preparing them for future success. We will be welcoming 6th grade to our building in the Fall of 2025.

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High School

Our high school empowers students to reach their full potential through a rigorous academic program and innovative career-focused education. With access to industry-standard technology and early college credit opportunities, our students are well-prepared for success in college and beyond. Our STEM program, with a focus on agriculture and bioscience, provides hands-on learning experiences that cultivate critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

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Mastery Assessment

Every high school level course at Global Impact STEM Academy follows a mastery-level grading scale. Mastery is demonstrated through excellence in a concept, skill and/or content standard. Students are given multiple opportunities to “show what they know”, with an emphasis on learning from mistakes. We believe that the process is just as important as the product.

We recognize that “going through the motions” of school and achieving a C-average isn’t pushing a learner to succeed. Therefore, we hold our learners to a high standard. Through a challenging and rigorous curriculum, students recognize the ability to learn from being challenged. All learners are granted the opportunity to retake assessments, remediate projects, and catch up on missing assignments.

Unlike a traditional school, the ability to resubmit assignments allows students to recognize their mistakes and learn from them. Although a mastery assignment is typically more difficult than a traditional school project, these assignments will advance students’ knowledge far greater.

Most mastery assignments are designed to be completed over multiple weeks, even months, and have students utilizing both content in the class as well as skills to use in the real world. For example, students may use DNA test results to prove how different phenotypes interact in a lab report, build a sustainable “ecosphere” habitat in conjunction with a local university, develop story-based video games to represent veteran’s issues in the United States, or create a business from scratch that generates a profit.

Grading Scale