Our trip to Owensboro included a stop at the Owensboro Innovation Academy, a middle school where the students roll up their sleeves and learn by doing.

Our Clayton Dalton takes us to class as Kentucky Edition goes on the road.

We like to refer to it as controlled chaos.

Here at Owensboro Innovation Middle School, referred to by locals as I, middle students engage in project based learning.

It's a teaching model that uses group projects and collaborative assignments to educate students.

Project based learning is very much student led, and so different groups will be at different points in a project.

And so you have them doing obviously different tasks to accomplish their end goal.

So it looks a little bit chaotic, but we know where everyone's at.

We give them benchmarks along the way, like they have their end goal.

But we have benchmarks which are a little like little checkpoints along the way.

I'm middle diverges from the more traditional instruction model here.

Students learn through hands on activities.

We did a rollercoaster project where we had to design and build a roller coaster using potential and kinetic energy.

And we watched like a video and then we did the lab for it to learn about potential and kinetic energy.

Then we had to find materials and build like a whole rollercoaster to get a marble from the top all the way down to the bottom into a cup.

Education at high middle isn't just about being booksmart.

It's about being street smart too.

We really try to incorporate what we call 21st century skills that are like those soft skills that employers are looking for.

Are you able to collaborate with a group of people?

Are you able to effectively communicate both in writing and orally?

Do you have agency?

It's one of the things we grade them on.

It means like you're taking ownership, you are able to self-reflect, you're able to analyze your failures and like have that growth mindset.

They taught us how to more of react during a like one of you're in a job interview because they taught us what like the right hand to like the right amount to do a handshake and how much eye contact is too much or too little.

And they gave us like questions to ask about whenever we're at a job interview or just to look up for that job.

Mark Moore is the principal at AI Middle.

He says the school's unique teaching model provides choices for students and their families.

You know, there's our model with project based learning.

There's a traditional model for a middle school, and it's great to have those options.

And we always tell parents that, you know, we don't want to promote one school over the other.

It's where your child can learn the best is where we wanted to end up.

So there's been a positive reaction from parents by having the choice and then the parents who come here and choose to go to middle, they like the aspect that we kind of tried to teach to the whole child.

Maya and Junior shared their biggest piece of advice for incoming students, something they both learned during their time at I Middle.

Really all in aspect is just to talk.

It's never wrong to ask a question.

Just be confident in yourself and communicate with your teachers.

Like if you have a question, no one's going to think you're dumb.

It's a different kind of learning for everyone that's there.

Just raise your hand and ask your question.

Principal Moore says he hopes students leave the school with a vision of the world greater than just themselves.

And I always tell the students every year that there's no doubt that they're going to do great things individually.

But the greatest things they're going to do, they're going to have it done.

Working with Working with a group.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Clayton Dalton.