Augusta Prep

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Meet Jessica APDS Class of 2026

Before Jessica Watkins, Class of 2026, stepped into the W. Rodger Giles Institute for Inquiry at Augusta Prep, she was unsure what her future held. That changed, however, when she realized that the Institute was a place that encourages curiosity, innovation and creativity.

Today, while sitting on a windy perch overlooking the red landscape of Mars, Jessica reflects on the experiments, teachers, lifelong friendships, and forward-thinking education that launched her passion – and her future.

This is her story.

Attributes

Courageous Creative

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Curious

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YEARS AND COUNTING Jessica Watkins was born curious. As a baby, she rubbed her hand back and forth across every surface, taking inventory of the range of textures that made up the world around her. As a toddler, Jessica created worlds for the worms she rescued out of puddles. She peppered her parents and teachers with questions about how things work, why things happen, and what she can do to make things better.

One day, Jessica stopped looking. Like so many students, her quest became less about discovery and more about the answer. She still wondered how it is possible that there is no cure for cancer and that places around the world lack clean drinking water, but no longer felt inspired by the search for the reason why.

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YEARS AND COUNTING

Jessica started high school at Augusta Prep in the fall of 2022, just as the school was planning to build a new science building. She didn’t pay much attention to the renderings of the facility; talk of an engineering lab and a digital fabrication lab was less interesting to her than Friday night’s football game. She had no idea that the plans for the W. Rodger Giles Institute for Inquiry were meant to reignite her sense of curiosity. This project is about how Augusta Prep students approach learning and understand their ability to address the issues of their generation; about how the school will

launch them into their future with the skills they need to thrive and contribute to the solutions that will define the world they inherit.

How do you inspire the next generation of inventors and innovators? What makes a person transition from asking, “why?” to wondering “why not?” How can Augusta Prep be a safe place for curious minds to thrive? These are the questions that leadership asked when designing the type of learning community students and families will experience at Augusta Prep.

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YEARS AND COUNTING

"Launching their curiosity, Launching their creativity, Launching their growth, Launching their future."

A big part of the answer to these questions can be found in the W. Rodger Giles Institute for Inquiry. The Giles Institute will be more than a modern science building. It will be a place where students are invited to tinker, to take things apart and put them back together differently.

The labs and classrooms will make science something real and tangible for students, drawing it out of the books and into real-world applications.

The W. Rodger Giles Institute for Inquiry is possible because of a generous gift from the

estate of Mr. Giles. Instead of using the funding to simply renovate the existing science space on campus, we developed a facility that prepares students for their future, not our past.

Fueled by technology, industries are being reshaped, resulting in a blurring of lines between them. The challenge for educators is how to prepare students for a future that we can only begin to imagine. The answer is to fuel their curiosity and teach them how to engage in discovery.

T-2 YEARS AND COUNTING When Jessica first walked into the Giles Institute as a junior, she was most excited about the Curiosity Lounge where she could meet friends before having to go to class. One day, however, her teacher took her class into the Digital Fabrication Lab. From 3-D printers to laser cutters, Jessica was surrounded with tools to transform an idea into a reality. She found herself thinking about what she would invent and what problem she could try to solve.

Science no longer seemed boring and disconnected from her everyday life. Now Jessica looked for science’s fingerprints on everything, including why she was the only person in her immediate family with bright red hair. Once again, she was that girl who saw every situation as a puzzle that she could figure out.

Even her annoying little brother, Sam, is once again excited about science. He loves the Middle School robotics program and cannot wait to join the Upper School robotics team.

T-2 YEARS AND COUNTING Jessica clicks ‘send’ on her College Common App essay and smiles. She loved writing about her passion for water. It started with an experiment to test lead levels in drinking water, which led to her class trying to find a low-cost solution to reduce the risk faced by families where the water is tainted. Now Jessica is fascinated by the new information scientists are getting from the Mars Rover about water on the red planet. Although she isn't quite sure whether she will major in environmental science or biological science, she knows that she wants to learn more about water - here on Earth and on Mars. She thought she was looking for an answer that day in the lab; instead, she discovered her passion.

“Launching their growth, Launching their future."

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YEARS AND COUNTING The Augusta Prep class of 2026 - the 61st graduating class in the school's history - toss their caps into the air as applause rings out over them. Jessica throws her arms around her friends, and they pose for a picture, the Giles Institute for Inquiry behind them. She thinks back to her junior year when the building opened. At the time, if you asked Jessica if she liked science, she was quick to say no. She didn't want to be a doctor. Why else would you study science?

To help its students answer that question, Augusta Prep built the Giles Institute for Inquiry and the transformational curriculum that building hosts to help its students answer that question. By encouraging their curiosity, nurturing their instinct for discovery, and supporting their efforts to take what they learn in the classroom and transform it into solutions, the school is not just providing students with a 21st century science education, but also launching their future one that values inquiry and recognizes it is discovery, and not information, that fuels innovation.

10 YEARS POST-LAUNCH

y, the Sun - a dust urth planet from fo e th s. ar on ye re o he tw ndy perch somew become my home for the past I write from a wi s e cosmos that ha th in rusty world lucky enough : the chosen few you, es on y ck lu e th e of thank rs. So I want to daily that I am on I remind myself inaugural human mission to Ma s Institute, I am sure my life le is Gi to be a part of th for the staff and spirit of the but when I think nge to say now, sn’t because if it wa d a different path. It feels stra s feeling a general willingness wa we would have follo days at Prep, what I remember scientist, let alone celestial t a es of rli e ea lif y e back to m ty that th ongside a certain al – rd ha rk wo to not for me. exploration, was digital fab labs, sity Lounge, its rio Cu its th wi , ed I felt like I s Institute open anything – and But then the Gile llingness to investigate, well, ere. Because of my time with th d wi and its wide-eye myself I didn’t even know was and then take them back apart. of – rt er pa th a ge d to re uncove t things the courage to pu d un fo I l, al u yo thing, not just a good terrogation” was onsible citizen. And in l ica pt ke “s at sp the idea th tive and re wards and I fell in love with rt of what it means to be an ac ifted my gaze up us if we are pa l sh ia y nt wl se slo I es , ed t nc but an ai va aw ad at ep th Augusta Pr mysteries e that earlier as my tenure at ars and beyond, and to all the id pr t ea gr th wi ore e st y outwards, to th em. It was theref ympus Mons, one of Mars’ man deeply about th Ol willing to wonder ing soil samples at the base of as a reminder to all who come , ct today, while colle planted Prep’s flag in the ground a way to change the world: ,I found s ha ity un m shield volcanoes m ways our small co after me of the an to seem.”

“To be, rather th ing me the way. me, and for show in ng vi lie be r fo Thank you With Gratitude,

Class of ’26

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