On Friday I traveled to Eagle Tech Academy in Columbia City to visit  with Director Brady Mullett and learn about the courses offered at Eagle Tech and see the design of their building.  In their first year, Eagle Tech has 5 teachers and roughly 100 students.  They offer classes in BioCom (Biology and Communications) Current Events/Speech, Health Marketing, PE,and Algebra.
During my visit I was able to watch students in BioCom as they created a children's book about the parts and functions of a cell.  In addition to having to write and produce a book that appealed to small children and educated them about the various parts and functions of a cell, the students also had to have a central theme in which they created analogies about the cell for their story.  For example, one group that I spoke with had students who were involved in cheerleading, so their theme was cheerleading and they related the parts and functions of the cell to cheerleading.  For example, the nucleus is to the cell as a coach is to a cheer team.
In the Current Events/Speech class I was able to watch students have a seminar on speech technique in the commons area of the school, while other students worked on presentations in the classroom.  

My visit to the Algebra classroom was especially enlightening as I got to visit with Brett Eberly, the ETA Math Teacher.  Mr. Eberly uses problem based learning to engage students in a variety of challenging projects.  For example, on the walls of his classroom where large sheets of white paper in which students had written equations calculating costs, mileage, and travel times for a vacation trip.  Additionally, he talked about how he uses cumulative tests to help students retain and rework core concepts throughout the year.