Whitley County students who are interested in trying a different style of learning by becoming members of the first freshman class at Eagle Tech Academy will be able to apply beginning Sept. 1.

Whitley County Consolidated Schools administrators presented a closer glimpse Friday morning at a kickoff breakfast for Eagle Tech will be like.
The breakfast was part of a campaign promoting the academy, set to open in the fall of 2011.

Lead administrator Brady Mullett said students would spend time at both the high school and the academy, likely spending most of the day at Eagle Tech and going back to their high school for the last period of the day to take choir, band or any other elective, and stay for extracurricular activities after school.
Eagle Tech will offer integrated classes like biolit, in which students would read literature that corresponded to a biology topic being studied.
Other classes will allow teachers to develop projects based on content standards, and students to present their solutions through debates, skits, panels and presentations.
Mullett said these classes are based on applying lessons to real-world problems.
Students at a New Tech academy in Fort Wayne, for example, recently worked with staff at the local Edy’s Ice Cream plant to design a more cost-effective package and presented their ideas to the company.
Academy students will graduate with the same diplomas they would earn at the traditional high school, and they must still pass all state-required exams.
As an additional requirement of the New Tech network, students will also earn 12 hours of college credit before they graduate, through dual-credit opportunities like internships.
“The bottom line is that students graduating from Eagle Tech will be well-prepared for anything,” Mullett said.
A short virtual video tour of what the Marshall Community Center would look like post-construction showed an entrance leading into an open lobby and gathering space.
Classrooms with large windows lined the hallway and were filled with tables, as opposed to desks, with a laptop computer for each student.
Applications will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis until Nov. 1.
After that date, admission will be granted through a lottery system. Any student in the county who will be a freshman in 2011 can apply.
The plan is to enroll one new class each year until the academy is full in 2014.