Seckinger High School will be Gwinnett's first artificial intelligence-themed school when it opens on Wednesday

“I was looking for a change and I was looking for something more communal, I guess,” Wilkinson said. “It’s the change before the change. I was looking for something different, something diverse, more colorful, more bright, more open and I got that at Seckinger.”

Seckinger High School will become Gwinnett County Public Schools’ latest school to open, and its newest school cluster, when the 2022-2023 school year begins on Wednesday. The school is set to stand out from its fellow Gwinnett high schools in a big way, however.

Seckinger will be GCPS’ first artificial intelligence-themed high school, meaning students will receive a college preparatory curriculum that is taught through the lens of artificial intelligence. It also includes a pathway for students who want to pursue an education in developing artificial intelligence.

“This is going to be the first of its kind in the country, and potentially in the world,” said Jason Hurd, who will be teaching the artificial intelligence courses at Seckinger.

The media got to tour the new school on Friday. During the tour, some teachers, who are otherwise required to wear masks inside GCPS facilities, got to take the masks off while they were interviewed by reporters so their responses could be heard more clearly on TV microphones.

The new school, which is named for former Gwinnett County Public Schools board member Dan Seckinger, has 538,557-square-feet of learning space, including: 144 classrooms; dance, drama, band, orchestra and choral rooms, chemistry, engineering and STEM labs; computer, CADD and MIDI labs; and computer art and other art rooms.

The school will have about 1,500 students this year.

“We recognize the significant shifts in technology, especially in regards to artificial intelligence and machine learning, how it impacts our live and our work,” Seckinger Principal Memorie Reesman said. “So, we want to make sure that our students are ready for that future.”

Reesman said the last two years have been spent developing the school’s theme and preparing it to open. Open houses were held this past week to introduce Seckinger’s students and their parents with the school.

After all of the work to get the school ready, Reesman — who was previously the principal at one of Seckinger’s feeder schools, Jones Middle School — said she’s ready to get classes started.

“I am super excited to get to this point,” she said. “It’s been a long process. Students are here and I get to engage with my former students and I just can’t wait until Wednesday.”

Although the theme of artificial intelligence will run through out all of the classes at Seckinger, some classes will tie into the theme more directly than others. There will also be specific classes devoted to teaching students the history of AI and how to develop and program it.

“The class will be a three-year pathway so, to complete the pathway, they will take the three courses that we offer, from foundations and then to a concepts class and then to applications of AI,” Hurd said.

Some tools students will have access to in the class include a robot dog-like jaguar called “Jessie” and small cars that look like remote controlled cars but are designed to drive themselves.

“Day One, we’re going to hit the ground running with defining artificial intelligence, what is artificial intelligence and really taking a look at the evolution of AI and where it’s been, where it is and where it’s going, and really focusing from the very beginning on how we, as humans, can be responsible in the development and ethical behavior of the artificial intelligence that’s being used around the world,” Hurd said.

But, artificial intelligence is not the only scientific-oriented class where students will be making things.

Seckinger also offers engineering courses, including a lab where students can make products from wood or metal, or even using a 3-D printer.

Engineering teacher Cheri Nations said the equipment students in her classes will have access to in the engineering lab are professional quality and sized equipment.

“Most schools have (a CNC router) that’s desktop size, but we have the big 4-by-4 one, which is huge,” Nations said. “It’s really nice. You would probably see that in a cabinet shop, where they do cabinets, because you could put a whole piece of wood on there.”

Nations is particularly hopeful that she will be able to reach female students and spur their interest in careers in the engineering field.

“This is something that is very near and dear to my heart,” Nations said. “I have three (daughters) that are very into STEM. They are in STEM careers and so women in STEM is a big deal. We need to foster the interest with our girl population, our female population, and get them into STEM.

“Our boys naturally kind of gravitate into engineering and fields like that and our girls are just as interested but they just don’t have that encouragement.”

The artificial intelligence theme will have a less direct application in other classes, but those subjects will still be approached in a way that will prepare students to approach AI.

Ninth-grade language arts teacher Kristen Davis, for example, said her class will tie in more to the ethical side of artificial intelligence by analyzing what drives characters in the books that they read.

“They’ll look at a lot of characters and they think about, ‘OK, what is a character’s personal ethics, what are their personal biases and how do those ethics and biases impact their decision making? How does that impact how they interact with other characters,” Davis said.

“And, then we take it a step further and think about, ‘OK, how does this impact the lesson that we learned?’ So, the theme of the text and then also, ‘How does this move the story forward? Why is understanding characters important to understanding how we as people function in society?’”

And, as for Wilkinson, she said she feels like the school is encouraging students to look ahead to their post-high school futures. She’s already joined the school council and was working with other council members on a special art project to greet students when they arrive on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Schools don’t really talk about what’s next after high school, but (Seckinger) I feel is a good jump,” she said. “They want more, they want more for you so ... I’m very excited.”