The Academy of Science immerses students in the language of math and science. George Wolfe, director of the school founded in 2006, said students wary of those subjects need not apply.

“They don’t all have to become scientists, but they have to want to learn math and science,” Wolfe said. “Otherwise, they’re in the wrong place.”

The core of the academy’s curriculum is a two-year, integrated science course that combines earth science, chemistry and physics. Wolfe said this approach reflects the way professional scientists use knowledge from all different fields in research labs.

“When our students are learning about waves, they also learn about earthquakes,” Wolfe said, illustrating how a physics and earth sciences lesson could be used at the academy.

Because this integrated course is the cornerstone for independent research projects in junior and senior years, students must enter in the ninth grade. Wolfe says any student who entered in later years “would really be behind the eight-ball.”

By junior year, every student embarks on his or her own independent research project. Wolfe pointed to recent projects by students on subjects ranging from black holes to nanofilaments. Wolfe, who previously hosted a public television show called “Homework Hotline” in Rochester, N.Y., excitedly described his school as being filled with “130 kids doing about 130 different projects.”

Academy students attend the school every other day. On the other days students are at their home high school for non-math and science classes. Students take the bus back to their home school after every day at the academy to rejoin their friends and participate in after-school clubs and sports. The academy is housed within Dominion High School in Sterling. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute sponsors and helps fund the school.

Students from the school frequently participate in programs at the institute’s Janelia Farms research campus in nearby Ashburn.

Any child in Loudoun County may apply to the Academy of Science -- even kids who attended private schools through eighth grade -- as long as they are enrolled in a public high school. Admissions are competitive, however.

The application includes a writing sample, standardized test scores and teacher recommendations. Wolfe says the “quality of an application” and a good match between school and student are the most important criteria. Wolfe expects enrollment at the Academy to reach its intended peak of 260 students in the next year or two.

“We’re new and we’re growing,” said Wolfe, who feels that growth is the surest sign of success at this new, unorthodox school. "The kids love it here."