The Institute of Science and Technology 6th-8th creating the next generation of scientists
Student & Family Guidebook 2022-23
IST Flyer
2023-2024 IST Application Process:
Our option program enrollment window will be in January of 2023.
If you are interested in the IST program at North Central for your middle school student, we will be accepting applications for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades starting in Mid-January. Please fill out this form if you'd like to get on the email list for flyers, parent information events, and other types of reminders for the program.
The Institute of Science and Technology is creating the next generation of scientists.
Imagine - A rich, daily immersion into hands-on science, sparking middle-schooler curiosities and keeping alive childhood fascinations with engineering, life sciences, archaeology, chemistry, discovery and experimentation.
Imagine - Classrooms led by teachers who not only teach content and skills but who are also trusted advisors whose daily focus is to assist students in the navigation of the increasingly complex challenges of adolescence and, ultimately, college readiness.
Imagination becomes reality in North Central High School’s middle school expansion model. In this lottery determined program, sixth, seventh and eighth grade students from across the district will attend middle school at NCHS, specifically, in the Institute of Science and Technology, the region’s leading STEM facility. Students will remain within the IST and within their own student groups for nearly all of their classes, but will be able to experience a small menu of carefully selected elective courses and some mathematic coursework with high school students from NCHS. At the end of their three-year middle experience at NCHS, students can remain at NCHS, attend a neighborhood high school, or opt into other option programs in the same way any other student in our district can. But they will do so with a dramatic “leg up” in terms of STEM preparation, college readiness, and advisory support.
School Day Info:
- School day is from 8 a.m - 2:30 p.m.
- Same bell schedule as high school
- District wide bus stops for transportation
- Small cohort style accepting a maximum of 60 students at each grade level
- Six classes consist of accelerated English, accelerated math, advanced science, accelerated history, PE, and one elective. (Since program is all accelerated curriculum, you can contact school counselor to discuss academic history performance and best fit)
- Sports: participation will take place at student's home middle school
- Clubs Activities: students can access most clubs and activities with the high schoolers (no high school dances)
- Lunch: middle school students eat in the Commons in a designated area, separate from the high schoolers
- Abiltiy to earn high school credit
