EdNC. Essential education news. Important stories. Your voice.

Search ednc.org

Students dive into STEM at Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies

and

Share this story

Our republishing policy

EdNC is a nonprofit, online, daily, independent newspaper. All of EdNC’s content is open source and free to republish. Please use the following guidelines when republishing our content.
  • Our content must be republished in full. If your organization uses a paywall, the content must be provided in full for free.
  • Credit our team by including both the author name and EdNC.org in the byline. Example: Alex Granados, EdNC.org.
  • If republishing the story online, please provide a link to EdNC.org or a link to the original article in either the byline or credit line.
  • The original headline of the article must be used. Allowable edits to the content of the piece include changes to meet your publication’s style guide and references to dates (i.e. this week changed to last week). Other edits must be approved by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
  • Photos and other multimedia elements (audio, video, etc.) may not be republished without prior permission. Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing a multimedia element.
  • If you republish a story, please let us know by emailing Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected].
Please email Hannah Vinueza McClellan at [email protected] if you have any questions. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Canonical tag

Please include the following canonical tag in the <head> of the republished story.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.ednc.org/students-dive-into-stem-at-northeast-academy-for-aerospace-and-advanced-technologies/">

HTML content

This includes the title, byline, content, and tracking pixel required for republishing this story.

Copy & paste HTML
This story is tagged:
A NEAAAT student works on her robot in a classroom assignment. Yasmin Bendaas/EducationNC

“When I heard that this innovative STEM school was going to be in Elizabeth City, I was definitely drawn to it,” said Tonya Little, chief operating officer of the Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies (NEAAAT).  “Science education, math education — these are the skills that every child needs to be able to think critically.”

NEAAAT launched in 2015 with 120 students and has grown to approximately 350 students from eight different counties. As a public charter school for grades seven through twelve, the Academy’s admissions are based on a lottery system for the region. Elizabeth City State University houses NEAAAT’s campus, so students can also enroll in college courses.

“We are teaching in an innovative way, and it’s working,” said Edward O’Neal, founding board member of NEAAAT. “Our students are so engaged in every single thing that you see here in this school.”

See the video below from the NEAAAT student learning exposition where students shared some of their STEM projects as well as photos from a campus visit to learn more about this innovative school. 

NEAAAT students
A group of students at NEAAAT set up a course to maneuver their robot. Yasmin Bendaas/EducationNC
NEAAAT student
A NEAAAT student makes adjustments to the programming of her robot. Yasmin Bendaas/EducationNC
NEAAAT students program their robot. Yasmin Bendaas/EducationNC
NEAAAT
A NEAAAT student makes adjustments to her robot during a classroom project. Yasmin Bendaas/EducationNC
NEAAAT students
Students set up their robots to “save the animals” in an obstacle course. Yasmin Bendaas/EducationNC
NEAAAT student Christian Brothers
NEAAAT student Christian Brothers gives a presentation on his internship at Museum of the Albemarle, where he worked with historical artifacts from the region. Yasmin Bendaas/EducationNC