With the flexibility of university and the consistency of elementary school, Fort St. John’s Energetic Learning Campus for Grade 10 students is a unique form of education.

While it was still under construction, about 150 North Peace Secondary School students began classes at the Energetic Learning Campus, located at the Pomeroy Sports Centre, in September.

Now, nearly six months later, the hallways and classrooms are abuzz with activity at their science fair on Monday morning.

“I thought I was going to be done with science fairs after Grade 7,” said student Trystan Baxter. “This was fun.”

Science fairs are one example of projects that students take on as part of their learning experience.

Vice Principal Sheldon Steele noted the comparison to elementary school is a valid one.

“I believe the future of education is that all secondary schools should mirror elementary education,” Steele said. “People don’t go out into the world and sit in a classroom.”

He pointed to the “root causes of success,” and how this campus relates to these four tenets.

“Most will say they achieved success in learning something because their teacher was great, it was hands-on, it was outside or they worked with a group,” he said.

The Energetic Learning Campus strives to appeal to these four tenets.

Each morning, all students exercise. This is part of their typical Grade 10 Physical Education class; however, students can choose what they want to do.

Students choose between skating, hockey, basketball, going for a walk on the track, going to the World Gym, or they participate in pack sports, which is a specialized non-profit program to promote community.

After exercising the first 50 minutes of each day, students get a break.

“Most students get something to eat,” Steele said. He noted this is uncommon for high school students.

As students return to class from the break after the first period, there is something notably absent – a bell.

This works with such a small student population.

“What I find in a school with only 150 students,” Steele said, “is that we all know every student by name.”

This doesn’t only go for the seven teachers, also known as community group leaders on this campus, but also for Steele and the front desk receptionist. The students are split up into six groups, with each group reporting to their teacher or community group leader. The seventh teacher is there for support.

“They (students) want to please you because they feel connected to you,” Steele said.

He said after having physical education first thing in the morning, students are ready to learn in time for second period.

“The students are very, very focused,” he said, “It’s been proven.

“After P.E., it looks like a normal school.”

Upon entering this campus, it is definitely different from typical high schools.

With the ice surface directly in front of its doors, and a bank of brand new Mac Desktops lining the front entrance, the Energetic Learning Campus screams modernity.

“You know you’re Canadian when you go to school in a hockey rink, eh!” is the student-crafted campus slogan.

The differences don’t end there.

“Everything’s made to not be permanent,” Steele pointed out.

Lockers are on wheels; walls – called operable walls - are completely mobile and can be changed as needed. There are 60 Mac laptops available for student use.

“For every two students, there’s at least one computer,” he said.

He also noted that the entire campus was designed, not only to be mobile, but also to allow sunlight to pass through.

It isn’t only the structure that’s modern.

At the end of each week, there are town meetings. Booster Juice gift certificates are doled out to the student who performs best throughout the week, and they talk about things that need to be adjusted.

Steele said that in the beginning, he ran all of these meetings, now teachers and sometimes, even students take the reigns.

Darian Nielsen presents her science project about nutrition in the open area.

“I like it,” she said of the Energetic Learning Campus. “Classes are smaller and I get more time with teachers.”

She said this increased time has improved her marks.

“I’m all As and Bs instead of Bs and Cs,” she said.

The one downfall is that she said she misses her friends at North Peace Secondary School.

“I like that classes are shorter, and I like that they go all year instead of just half,” she continued.

Typical high school classes operate on the semester systems, where one set of classes are offered from September until January, and the second group from January until June.

“This gives me more time for projects,” Neilsen said.

While this year has been a learning experience for students and teachers both, Steele said it’s been a positive one.

“It makes me want to come to work every day,” Steele said of the campus. “The staff is amazing; it’s a close-knit community.”

While he admitted that not everything is perfect, it’s come a long way since September. Their biggest challenge now is becoming more active in the community.

“The hardest thing is to relate to the public that this is a huge benefit to the future of education,” Steele said.

He noted that being in the Pomeroy Sports Centre causes students to interact with the public all the time.

“They’re in the community,” he said in comparison to students typically being sequestered in the school from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

That’s something teachers try to reinforce with students to prove that “all teenagers aren’t bad.”

District 60 Superintendent Larry Espe said he’s surprised at how many people don’t know there’s a school at the Pomeroy Sports Centre.

Espe added, “We need to do a better job at telling our story.”