About

Venture Academics

Venture Academics is a hands-on, real-world way to learn at Linn-Mar High School. It’s for students who want to take what they learn in class and use it—solving problems, creating projects, and working with others to make ideas happen.

You’ll connect with local businesses and professionals, work on real projects, and get a behind-the-scenes look at different careers. Along the way, you’ll build skills like problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, time management, and teamwork—skills that matter no matter where life takes you.

Venture builds on what you’re already learning in high school but gives you the chance to apply it in the community and see how your ideas can make a real impact.

Venture Newsletters

Fall 2024

Spring 2025

How Venture works

Students select one (of ten) content-focused “strands” in which to spend one-half day of either the fall or spring semester participating in strand learning and project work. Each strand will have one or more mentor teachers, community advisors, mentors, or partners supporting students through credit-bearing coursework and projects of student choice.

Though super-block sections of Venture Academics will meet course standards for several LMHS courses, additional stand-alone sections of courses will be taught in a traditional fashion and available to students choosing traditional learning or unable to access Venture for scheduling reasons.

Offered strand learning will include; Exploring Education, Digital Design and Communication, Biology, Applied Marketing, Inventrepreneurship, Behavioral Science, Creative Writing, Biomedical Science, Earth Science, and Civics.  As stated earlier, strand-learning will use pre-defined coursework to support project-based learning.

For example, the Behavioral Science strand will consist of content standards associated with Psychology and Sociology (for which students earn 10 credits as learning is demonstrated),  Rhetoric (student earn 5 credits of speech), and elective credit focused on transferable/universal skills as students complete projects and community interactions (an additional 5 credits).

For Additional Information

Students and parents; please consult the official 2025-2026 Linn-Mar High School Program of Studies or see your School Counselor for details of courses and credits.

If you are a business partner who is interested in partnering with Venture please reach out to Strategic Partnerships Coordinator, Elyssa McDowell. elyssa.mcdowell@linnmar.k12.ia.us or at 319-447-3124.