This Nashville School Is Giving Students More Room to Explore, Create & Build
Students at Currey Ingram Academy are building robots, producing broadcasts, and stepping into virtual worlds. The new Currey Family IDEA Center gives JK-12 students with learning differences hands-on access to maker spaces, robotics labs, a professional recording studio, and extended reality rooms where they can explore their interests and discover what they're capable of creating. Image: Currey Ingram Academy
What happens when a classroom becomes a robotics lab, recording studio, broadcast center, and portal to outer space? Students at Currey Ingram Academy are finding out, thanks to the new Currey Family IDEA Center. Designed for JK-12 students, the 10,583-square-foot space gives kids with learning differences (like ADHD, dyslexia, and more) room to explore, create, problem-solve, and try again — using everything from engineering and robotics to music, broadcasting, extended reality, and other emerging technologies.
A New Kind of Classroom for JK-12 Students
Located just south of Nashville, the two-story Currey Family IDEA Center is home to two 694-square-foot makerspaces, two 782-square-foot robotics labs, and multiple classrooms for varying subjects. Rounding out the space is a video production studio with a 10-by-12-foot LED wall and an approximately 1,200-square-foot professional-quality music recording studio and control room.
The center is open to all Currey Ingram students, with projects becoming more advanced as students grow older. Younger students focus on building, making, and developing basic problem-solving skills, while Middle and Upper School students can explore more specialized topics like coding, engineering, broadcasting, and cinematography.
“This environment more closely resembles the kinds of collaborative workspaces [students] will encounter beyond school, where people work together to solve problems, create, and bring ideas to life,” said Head of School Dr. Jeffrey L. Mitchell in an August 18 press release.
With so many tools and technologies at students’ fingertips, it’s important to note that the IDEA Center isn’t limited to STEM classes and activities. Teachers also use the space to bring core subjects to life. A history class, for example, might use the LED wall and video studio to recreate a historical setting, while a math class could use robotics or coding to visualize equations or model real-world problems.
Where Technology & Creativity Meet
Perhaps the most exciting part isn’t what’s inside the IDEA Center — it’s what students can do with it. For many, the new space opens up opportunities to take an interest and turn it into something tangible, whether that means designing a 3D-printed creation, producing a news broadcast, or stepping inside a virtual world.
For some students, those possibilities extend into creative pursuits. Eli, an 11th-grade student, looks forward to using the new space to expand his interest in news broadcasting. “I’m really excited about the new broadcasting space,” he says. “Having a professional studio and more advanced technology will give us opportunities to take the news programs to the next level.”
The center’s extended reality capabilities also offer another way to spark curiosity. Michael Spilman, a Currey Ingram parent, is looking forward to the experiences the technology can make possible. “I’m excited about the near-endless possibilities of the extended reality rooms to transport the kids all over the world — underwater, outer space, museums, art galleries, symphonies, even in their own backyard at Currey Ingram,” he shares.
Learning by Doing Builds Confidence, Too
This hands-on learning helps give students with learning differences another way to understand concepts, solve problems, and recognize their own strengths. Instead of simply hearing about an idea, students can build it, test it, troubleshoot what isn’t working, and then try again.
That process also creates opportunities to practice skills that extend beyond a single project. Working together requires students to plan, divide responsibilities, stay organized, manage their time, and adjust when things don’t go as planned. It also gives them room to take risks, work through challenges, and experience the satisfaction of figuring something out for themselves.
“The equipment is only the kindling,” said Dr. Mitchell in the school’s August press release. “Its purpose is to spark passion in STEM, in digital creation, and in the particular joy of discovering one’s own mind can build something that did not exist that morning.”
Just as importantly, the center encourages students to follow their individual interests. A student drawn to engineering can explore robotics and 3D printing, while another might find a creative outlet through broadcasting, cinematography, or music production. For Maria Naisbitt, whose son is in ninth grade, the new recording studio is an especially exciting opportunity.
“Being part of the band the last few years, it’s wonderful that students can now rehearse in the Center during the school day and be able to play and record amazing music in a professional and creative environment,” she says.
The goal isn’t for every student to become a technologist. It’s to give each student the tools and space to discover what they can do.
Preparing Students for What Comes Next
Ultimately, the IDEA Center is about more than preparing students to use the latest technology. It gives them opportunities to practice collaboration, adaptability, and creative problem-solving, and to build the confidence they can carry into college and beyond. And because those skills are developed through an educational approach designed around how Currey Ingram students learn best, the experience is both practical and personal.
“One of the most important things I wanted to do with this space was prepare our students for the future,” said Dr. Mitchell in the August press release.
At Currey Ingram, that future isn’t something students prepare for — it’s something they’re already learning to build.
This article is sponsored by Currey Ingram Academy.
Currey Ingram Academy is located at 6544 Murray Lane, Brentwood, TN 37027. To learn more, visit curreyingram.org or call (615) 507-3242.
Brianna Goebel
Brianna is StyleBlueprint’s Associate Editor and Sponsored Content Manager. She is an avid fan of iced coffee and spends her free time reading romance novels.
