Ninth grade serves as an important foundation year, where students begin strengthening essential 4C's through intentional relationship building and early career exploration. Project‑based learning becomes a central thread in their coursework, encouraging them to analyze data with precision, interpret information through graphs, read critically, and express ideas with creativity. 

Throughout the year, students learn to operate as effective team members, developing trust and shared responsibility. They also build confidence as they practice public speaking and engage in meaningful collaboration—skills that prepare them to navigate both academic challenges and future professional environments. 

Below are some photos from the Class of 2020 Ecological Study:

How do we know if an ecosystem is healthy or if its overall health is in decline? The answer to this question is valuable, as humans rely on ecosystems for the natural services they provide us.

In this science-based project, students worked in groups to design experiments that would help them determine if an ecosystem could be considered healthy. 

The students then performed their experiments on the ecosystem in Collins Hill Park's nature trail, ultimately presenting their findings in front of a group of experts in the field.

Guest speaker for this project:

Dr. Joe Mendelson, Director of Herpetological Research, Zoo Atlanta

Students compete in an evolutionary game by imagining their own organism, devising a behavioral strategy for that organism, and programming those behaviors into a sequence of competitive decisions. It's more or less a fancy version of rock, paper, scissors where instead of playing the game themselves, the students watch their programmed organisms match up against each other! The focus of this project is around basic coding skills, data management, evolution, and competition.