Hands on Learning and Academics for ADHD & Asperger's - The Orion School

Tuition income funds the education we offer at the Orion School; but like all private special needs schools we need to reach out into the community to enhance our program goals. (It is much like our families paying for tuition yet still needing to reach out to other resources such as scholarships*) It has been shown that the best way to engage complex and bright students who have ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome is through high interest and hands on learning experiences. Each week at the Orion School we are committed to extending academic connections through an enriched cross curricular approach. We are fortunate to have a network of community partners to help us achieve this goal.

Each year the Orion School is the recipient of a scholarship from the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to “protecting and preserving the Chattahoochee River, its lakes and tributaries for the people, fish and wildlife that depend upon them”. Through the scholarship, the Orion Schoolstudents get to spend a day at the Lake Lanier Aquatic Learning Center (LLALC), which is operated in partnership by CRK and Elachee Nature Science Center. The curriculum taught on this outing is aligned with the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards and enhances the program goals for the school year. In fact the Elachee Nature Center is the only center in GA that is SASC accredited.The academically exciting day is designed around an outing on a 40-foot catamaran named the Chota Princess which is the only floating classroom in Georgia. Through a variety of hands on learning activities on the boat, our students learn about water quality and lake ecology. Some of the activities include dissolving oxygen (DO), pH, and turbidity tests in order to better understand the ecology of Lake Lanier. In addition, the students use nets to sample and identify freshwater plankton, the microscopic animals that form the base of the reservoir's many food webs. The on-board instruction is capped off by lowering a deep-water probe into the lake to measure DO, pH, and temperature and comparing those results to the previous results that were found at the surface.

This school year the Orion School is dedicated to becoming a more sustainable school through our Greenspace with Grace initiative. The floating classroom is just one of many opportunities to help our students  learn how interconnected our world is. As our students make the connection between the water they drink and the lakes that deliver their water, they become partners in water conservation and stewards of the world they are growing up in.   *Many of the Orion School families participate in the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship, or SB-10, to help bridge the gap between public and private school.