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Elon Musk Started A School, And It Plans to Reach Millions.
What can be that different, right? His school has a Stand-Up Comedy course.
Christopher Lee
September 24, 2024
Hey Educators. Christopher again. Keeping up with a recent trend in education is not easy for all, and I hope I’m giving you a small help this week again. In case you missed it, last week, we discussed about the topic that Korean schools (all of them) will adopt AI textbooks by 2028, starting from next year. Pretty cool.
I’m back with a story of probably the most unique school in the world founded by Elon Musk, which started from SpaceX and now plans to reach millions with very unique curriculum and teaching method. Here’s a deep dive exploration 🚀
Ad Astra and Astra Nova School by SpaceX
It’s relatively an old news that Elon Musk founded a school, named Ad Astra, for his children and a few of SpaceX employees. Ad Astra was an experimental school on the campus of SpaceX from 2014-2020.
This video (Jan 2023) of Elon Musk leading a classroom about design thinking went viral with its significance of the most iconic innovator of the modern world setting up a new type of institution in a very exclusive manner. Ad Astra, meaning “to the stars” in Latin, as the cool name suggests, started as an experiment at a rocket factory of SpaceX (can any campus be cooler than this?), making it the most secretive, one-of-a-kind… Hogwarts 🧙
Fast forward, after the pandemic, the “physical campus” of Ad Astra disappeared, but the vision continued in the form of online education with better scalability and bigger impact. The Astra Nova School now envisions to reach millions of students aged 10-14 globally. The school has a heavy focus on tech and problem solving. I went through their course registration system, and here are some courses provided:
Title | Description |
|---|---|
Beginners Stand-Up Comedy | Learn the basics of performing stand-up comedy, including writing jokes, public speaking, and stage presence. Students will perform a routine at the end of the course. |
Infectious Diseases Throughout History | Explore the history of infectious diseases, their treatments, and the development of antibiotics and vaccines. |
Lost Worlds Workshop | Explore mythical worlds and write your own fictional stories set in those locations. |
Digital Comics: The Hero's Journey | Collaboratively create a digital comic with an original hero on a journey. (Recommended working on a tablet with drawing software) |
App Dev Foundations (Coding) | Learn to code mobile apps compatible with iOS and Android using Dart and Flutter. (Requires prior coding experience and Windows/Mac computer) |
The coverage is way beyond tech. I’m genuinely surprised by how unique the course topics are! They are an online-only school and take full-time and part-time students. Their admissions process is need blind, and they meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. I see this as one of the greatest options for parents with home-schooling needs.
Another factor is critical thinking. Working with ClassDojo, they launched a set of critical thinking cases, named Conundrum, where such cases and pdf worksheets are open to the public for completely free. Why don’t you try using their materials for your classes?
Conundrums by ClassDojo X Astra Nova School
Here’s one of the critical thinking problems the school uses to teach kids with:
Alright, I've got a question for you. Imagine this. Three island countries in the middle of the ocean work well together. One island focuses on fishing, one island specializes in farming, and one island has the best places to live. One day, a volcano erupts and a new island is created. When compared to the other three islands, the new island is actually better in every way: it has the best reefs for fishing, the best soil for growing food, and the best land to live on. The three island countries all see the promise and threat of the new super island. So, what do you think should happen next?
Option A: Share. Divide the new island into three regions each controlled by one of the original island countries.
Option B: Fourth Country. The island should become its own country and decide whether or not it wants to work with the other three islands
Option C: Leave it Alone. The island should not be developed
Option D: Something Else. A new way to solve this challenge that you thought of.
So, what should happen to the new island? Are you Team Share, Team Fourth Country, Team Leave it Alone, or Team Something Else?
Synthesis is another project that also branched out from Ad Astra, where students learn very interactively:
Ad Astra is coming back in Texas 🇺🇸
Have you heard that Elon Musk is creating a new town at Bastrop, Texas? He has made considerable progress, and X (Twitter) HQ just arrived as well.
And at his empire, he’s reopening the school. Ad Astra is now accepting applications for the 2024-2025 school year, which targets all children ages 3 - 9, a lower age group compared to the one at Astra Nova School.
Ad Astra is launching in Bastrop, Texas! Applications for the 2024-2025 school year are now open.
— Ad Astra (@adastra)
9:59 PM • Jul 31, 2024
Ad A
Ad A
We are yet to know further details, and the campus is to be finalized. But we can easily know that it will be very different from any other schools in the world.
Both Ad Astra and Astra Nova are growing its reach with a heavy focus on STEAM learning. His ambitious vision, though controversial, is obviously making meaningful changes that will help nurture millions of future talents we truly need 🌟
My quick thought — Astra Nova School runs live on the Pacific Time, which makes some parts of the region quite difficult to participate on the full-time basis for years. Maybe there can be another branch covering a different time zone? 🤔
My dream is to make a unique, unique, and unique school. No detailed blueprints yet, but it will be about entrepreneurship and technology (Should I throw in a music class, too?) supported by industry experts, entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate sponsors, who will support the students’ dreams to solve real-world problems. Lots of field trips. Daily presentations. No boring classes. Project-based. And most importantly, very fun.
I hope this post gave you an insight on how other countries are changing their education. If you liked this post, subscribe to get weekly insights for educators on global innovation in education.
See you next week 👋,
Christopher Lee (Let’s connect on LinkedIn!)
Room for Growth