Bismarck Innovation School wins prestigious education award

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - Kids learn in a lot of different ways, and some need a more personalized educational experience.

The Innovation School in Bismarck is looking to educate its students through projects, individualized learning and through their peers.

Here in the classroom, the older students are working on hands-on STEM exercises, and many students prefer to learn this way.

“I feel like hands-on learning is better because you don’t just see it in, like the teacher tells you to do this, but they actually teach you about it. And then they say, try it. And then if you do it wrong, they just give you more feedback,” said Taj Singh, a fifth grader.

It’s his first year here, and the Innovation School takes a different approach than other schools he’s been to.

“Because I feel like it’s more recesses, because in my old school, there’s only two recesses. I would have a lot of energy in class. I feel like it would distract me, but now, I have a lot more time to get my energy out,” said Singh.

The school’s values are project-based learning and preparing students to be 21st-century learners.

“They just kind of teach you skills that, like, you just need in a classroom, not skills that you need out in the real world. But in this school you do, you get to learn about like your feelings and how to manage them,” said Evelyn Meisel, a sixth grader.

This helped the school win “The Yass Prize” as a quarterfinalist and win $100,000 for the school.

“Continue to grow and expand and market the school. And then just making more available to our kids, whether it’s through STEM projects or more field trips. And then, of course, teacher pay. We want to pay our teachers more, we know they’re worth so much more. So those are the areas that we’ll focus on with this award,” said Heidi Woods, executive director.

The Innovation School was founded seven years ago to provide more options for individual project-based education.

Thirty-seven kids are enrolled from preschool through eighth grade. It’s a private, tuition-based, nonreligious school.

The Innovation School is one of 64 innovative organizations from across the country that has been honored for the personalized education they offer.

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