by Bailey Loosemore

Headphone-wearing sixth-graders at Bullitt County’s new Discovery School sat quietly, clicking away at language arts and social studies assignments on their laptops.

Minutes later, the students shifted their attention to teacher Devin Franklin’s science class, where excitement filled the room and voices rose.

Hands-on science and math classes are the reason nearly 70 students entered the Discovery School — a program that serves selected gifted and talented students. Their willingness to learn showed in the number of hands raised and questions asked.

The Bullitt County Board of Education approved the program in March, and officials spent the summer developing it. The board located the Discovery School in Hebron Middle School and allowed the administration there to plan how it would run — with suggestions from the district, Hebron principal Steve Miracle said.

Discovery School students work seperately from Hebron students in a four-classroom section of the building but participate in Hebron’s sports and other extracurricular activities.

“It’s a challenge for the students and us, putting together something that really doesn’t exist in any form that we know,” Miracle said.

Superintendent Keith Davis’ original idea was to establish a program that gave students skilled in science and math more opportunities outside the typical classroom setting.

The program is similar to the Bullitt Advanced Math and Science Program at Bullitt Central High School, which helps students acquire college credits before graduating. In the Discovery School, students can start building high school credits as early as sixth grade.

They were previously able to build those credits, but sometimes had to leave campus to do it, such as going to North Bullitt High School to take a geometry class, Franklin said.

Discover School focuses less on traditional instruction, instead presenting students with open-ended questions that they have to solve, math teacher Melinda Jeffries said.

“One that will be coming up is using the Pythagorean Theorem and geometry to build a shelter,” she said. “You give them the general idea, and they can run with it.”

In preparation for class, students watch and read lessons as homework. They then use information they learn outside of class to dive into a project quickly after taking their seats, Franklin said.

“We get a lot of that done through online options, so that when they’re physically here, they’re coming into the next part of the lesson where they’re getting into the in-depth stuff,” he said.

Students work with teachers during math, science and unified arts classes but complete language arts and social studies courses online through a program called Edgenuity. They have time at the beginning and end of each school day to tackle the computer lessons and can work ahead, if they wish.

Seventh-grader Willow Morgan, 12, said it’s feasible to complete her seventh- and eighth-grade computer courses and start building high school credit before graduation.

Willow and seventh-grader Abey Hicks, 12, said they were bored in their sixth-grade classes.

“I was excited for the challenge of this school,” Willow said. “I’d almost never gotten challenged at any type of school, and I love challenges. It’s horrible.”

Abey and Willow said some of their friends were hesitant to apply to the program, because they didn’t want to leave friends behind, but the girls think the other students might regret their decisions.

“What I say is, you should do this program, because after high school and college, you might not even see them anymore, and you’re going to look back on your life and think, ‘Why didn’t I do this program,’ ” Willow said.