Khatiba Adesanya, four, learns her numbers. Students at the New Timbuktu Academy are using building projects as some of the building blocks for their education. They are building a shed behind the school that will function as a “green technologies lab,” where they plan to build solar panels that will help the low–income homes in the surrounding Eau Claire neighborhood.

School co–founder and director, Dr. Abd’Allah Adesanya says the building project teaches students they have a social and economic impact. “As human beings we have a role to play in the environment,” says Adesanya.

This is one of the many “hands–on, minds–on” projects the academy uses to educate students outside of the classroom.

Dr. Jim Fisher, a philosophy professor, and Dr. Adesanya, a law professor, started the school in 2008 — then located off of Farrow Road. The school then moved to its current location in the Ridgewood Subdivision of Eau Claire last August. Fisher and Adesanya named the school for Timbuktu, which is historically considered the West African center of knowl- edge and education.

Dr. Adesanya stands in front of the shed the students are building. They wanted to educate students who are considered at–risk — students expected to achieve less than their peers of not graduate at all based on such factors as family income. Adesanya says that many youth pegged as underachievers are at or above average intelligence levels, but they grow bored as they near middle school. And boredom often leads to discipline problems when youth are at the age where they are testing their limits.

But Timbuktu offers students a balanced education, complete with discipline, a traditional bookbased curriculum, and hands–on learning.

(L–r )Kameia Howard, 15, Minniya Muhammed, 11, and Burrell Koger, 16, watch the film, “Warriors of Virtue”— a tool teachers use to sharpen the students’ cr itical thinking skills. Along with the video, teachers teach students to analyze how youth make decisions. Parents and Timbuktu teachers come to an agreement in which a teacher can place an authoritative, yet caring grip on a young man’s shoulder if he misbehaves. Both Adesanya and Fisher think this form of discipline is instrumental in keeping youth from developing an inappropriate view of their own power, particularly for youth who don’t have a father in the home.

With proper discipline in place, teachers can give students the intellectual attention they need. The curriculum meets S.C. education standards, and Adesanya also uses New Jersey and North Carolina standards to help students rank at a higher level.

Timbuktu follows block scheduling that teachers can use to adjust the schedule based on educational needs. Adesanya also focuses heavily on Scholastic Assessment Test preparation to help students learn how to take the test and to reduce the nervousness that comes with taking a lengthy, unfamiliar test. Timbuktu’s curriculum also emphasizes education based on vocabulary words typically used on the SAT.

But Timbuktu practices a philosophy in which book learning and hands–on learning are inseparable.

The school’s building project is a math lesson, for instance. Students had to apply the Pythagorean theorem, in which they found the hypotenuse of a triangle, in order to measure the beams needed to build the roof.

And when one student wanted to cut the legs off of a Grand–daddy Long Legs spider, Adesanya used it as an opportunity to teach the value of life in an ecosystem, along with the value of showing respect for parents at home. “Everything we do affects something else,” says Fisher. It’s a lesson central to Timbuktu’s teaching.

Students at Timbuktu also take Spanish and Arabic. And faculty are considering adding Korean to the curriculum. The school also has a prayer and meditation room, and Adesanya plans to house chickens — as pets — behind the school for scientific study.

Tuition is 80 dollars per week, but the school works with parents based on what they can afford, so donations are a vital part of the school’s funding. A kindergarten teacher, Adesanya, several volunteers and two part–time teachers, including Fisher, teach four students in kindergarten through 11th grade. All ages are welcome, but the school’s focus is sixth through eighth grade.

Timbuktu is currently fundraising with tea sales and dinners. The goal is to raise ten thousand dollars by April 30.

For more information, visit www.newtimbuktuacademy123. webs.com.