In the factory’s tiny lobby, a dozen middle-school-aged boys and a handful of parents stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the company president, a soft-spoken man with a pen in his shirt pocket. He held up one precision-crafted, metallic piece after another and explained how angles and radiuses, aluminum and titanium, came together through man and machine to create amazing things. This gizmo goes on a Black Hawk helicopter, he said. This one, on a Javelin missile. And this one?

“You all saw the Curiosity land on Mars?” he asked. Heads nodded. Well, he said, his company made some of the parts for the rockets that got it there.

Inside the boys’ heads, gears turned.

For some of them, this was their third trip to a manufacturing plant in the past month. For kids their age, that would be extraordinary in just about any school, public or private. But in their case, it’s even more unique: They’re home-schooled.

The Trinity Homeschool Academy in Tampa, Fla. emphasizes science, technology, engineering and math – the so-called STEM fields. Director Tonya Walters designed it that way. The mother of three created the all-grade-level network two years ago, aiming to fill an open niche in the home-school community and a gap between what kids don’t learn, in too many settings, and what high-tech, high-wage jobs need them to know.

Especially with the tough economy, “you realize all these college kids with liberal arts degrees can’t get jobs,” Walters said. “I thought, ‘How can I get my kids from point A to point B?’ ”

The academy now serves about 200 students and contracts with 15 teachers. Home school parents pick-and-choose classes in a system Walters calls “a la carte.”

In many ways, Trinity academy is in sync with the new definition of education. Practical, flexible, whatever works. The STEM emphasis defies home-school stereotypes, though the academy does proudly tout a Christian worldview and, in biology, offers some faith-based teachings that would make many scientists pause. At the same time, the academy shows how evolving options beyond traditional public schools are finding ways to bring kids up to speed on skills and knowledge many consider vital. (more…)