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From hands-on laboratory research to project-based geography and artificial intelligence, Columbus Academy introduced five new classes for the 2026–27 school year. While the subjects span science, history, computer science and Japanese studies, the courses are designed to give students more opportunities to investigate questions, apply what they learn, and shape their own learning past traditional classroom settings. 

Honors Synthetic Biology

Taught and organized by Dr. Lester and Dr. Kurth, Honors Synthetic Biology gives students a firsthand look at and a chance to explore real-world, laboratory-style research. “We want to prepare them with some foundational skills, but also help them generate ideas, do literature research, and come up with their own research questions,” Lester says. The class is designed to be almost entirely hands-on, emphasizing curiosity and inquiry. 

A defining feature of the class is its independent nature. “It is very self-driven by the students,” she says, “but we’re here for support, and everyone’s going to be doing different things.” Rather than following identical experiments throughout the year, students will eventually develop their own research questions and pursue their own projects in the second semester. 

Planning for the research-based class began the previous spring, before Lester and Kurth traveled to Boston for a three-day professional development session over the summer. But Synthetic Biology is part of something larger than Academy. “We’re constantly in communication with the people who developed the curriculum and the course and this company that we’re working with,” Lester says. 

Not everything is set in stone, however, as Lester and Kurth continue refining the curriculum throughout its inaugural year. “Every day we’re learning new things, so it’s ongoing,” Lester says, “and it’ll probably be a learning experience throughout the entire year. You can’t anticipate things until you are running the lab and realize it’s not feasible. That’s the nature of it.” In its first year, 11 students registered for the class, giving Lester and Kurth a small group with which to explore this new approach to science education. 

For Lester, one of the most exciting parts of the course is giving students an experience that can otherwise be difficult to access in high school, and “getting these students exposure to what life and research in the lab is like.” She hopes the experience will give students the confidence and skills to feel comfortable in a research laboratory in the future. Ultimately, Lester hopes the course will “excite a new generation of scientists,” giving students firsthand experience with the skills, independence, and adaptability that come with research.

Human Geography Seminar

After six years of teaching Human Geography, Mr. Morford wanted to make the course more interactive and less reliant on textbook learning and vocabulary memorization. The result is Human Geography Seminar, a pilot course that maintains much of the same content as the standard course while introducing a more project-based approach. 

Morford was drawn to project-based learning to encourage students to engage with the subject on a deeper level. “We wanted to continue to try to make it more interactive and less reliant on the textbook and on sort of memorization of vocab terms,” he says. Rather than creating an advanced version of Human Geography, the history department chose to keep the course at the standard level so ninth graders could remain in the same fundamental course. 

The course is organized around larger projects every unit, with smaller activities building toward each. Students are encouraged to collaborate, investigate real-world questions, and demonstrate their understanding in different ways. For the first project, students examined Central Ohio through a geographic lens, working in small groups to research neighborhoods such as Bexley and areas on the east side of Columbus. They then created presentations using maps and points of interest to form a better understanding of each area’s “sense of place.” 

Looking ahead, Morford is particularly interested in teaching units on migration and movement, as well as urbanization and the ways cities grow. Both topics connect to political geography and “the way laws and policies shape places,” which he says he finds particularly interesting. The pilot currently has 32 students across two sections. As the first year unfolds, Morford hopes the course can show what happens when geography moves beyond the textbook and into the communities and places students see around them.

Japanese History

For the first time, Academy students can explore Japanese history as a dedicated course. Dr. Matsuaki created the one-semester class to offer something that had not previously been available, choosing between Japanese language and Japanese history as possible new offerings. 

The course spans an enormous timeline, beginning around 16,000 BCE and continuing to present-day Japan. Rather than studying that history in isolation, Matsuaki connects historical events with contemporary Japanese culture, hoping students who may eventually visit Japan can better understand the country and the places they encounter. 

The course also incorporates some Japanese language alongside its historical content. Students will encounter a wide range of periods and topics, from ancient Japan to the feudal era and samurai, through World War I, World War II, and modern Japan. 

With only one semester to cover thousands of years of history, Matsuaki aims to balance the breadth of the course with topics that can capture students’ interest. “I hope that they get just a sense of how different historical pivotal moments have contributed to present time Japan,” Matsuaki says. He hopes students come away with not only an understanding of Japan’s history, but also how to see “all the good things and all of the flaws that come along any place.”

Honors Machine Learning and AI

After an internal review of the math and computer science departments, Academy looked for ways to expand its computer science offerings and give students more flexibility. Mr. Bolognese, who was part of a team that visited schools in California, saw firsthand how other schools structured their courses. “They had other course offerings that we didn’t have at the time, and a lot of their courses were semester-based,” he says, “and we asked ourselves big questions, like how can we make our department better?” 

That experience helped inspire a restructuring of Academy’s computer science courses. Java and Data Science were divided into semester-long courses, while teachers created two new offerings—a second-semester AI course and Honors Machine Learning. The AI course will provide an early introduction to artificial intelligence, focusing less on the underlying deep math and more on how AI can be used and what it can generate. 

“It’s sort of an early exposure to what AI is,” Bolognese said, recognizing that the California schools had implemented their versions of AI in their curricula, “so we thought we’d make our own. We were encouraged by seeing what other schools are doing and reflecting on what we’d want to change more.” 

Bolognese also hopes the semester-based structure will make it easier for students to explore different areas of computer science. “It’s not a year-long commitment,” he says. Students can take a semester, continue in the subject if they enjoy it, or try a different course later on. With new courses and a flexible structure, the department is expanding the ways students can explore computer science, from analyzing data to experimenting with artificial intelligence.

Together, the five new courses reflect Academy’s broader expansion of how students can learn. Although each course takes a different approach, the changes give students more opportunities to conduct research, investigate their communities, explore new fields, and apply what they learn to questions that extend beyond the classroom.