SOUTH POINT — Staff of the new Tri-State STEM+M Academy were not expecting anywhere near the turnout they received on Tuesday.

An informational meeting took place at the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce and interest in the school was so high, staff were trying to round up enough chairs to seat everyone in the packed room.

The academy is set to open to its first students in August 2017, and will be focused on the science, technology, engineering, math and medical fields.

“We didn’t anticipate this kind of turnout on our first night,” Scott Howard, the school’s CEO, said. “We are the newest public school in Lawrence County.”

He said the school is focused on providing the best possible education for students from Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky.

“STEM is prevalent in a lot of places in Ohio, but not so much here,” Howard said. “We are going to focus on STEM in everything we do, and we’re looking for parents of children who are already interested in careers in science and medicine.”

He said their vision is to have a network of STEM schools in the Tri-State. The Lawrence County school will have a specialization in medical education, and he envisioned similar schools focused on engineering or technology in West Virginia and Kentucky.

“We need to stop using the river as a boundary for students,” he said.

While there is STEM education at Collins Career and Technical Center in Lawrence County, Howard said the academy would be an independent school and a key difference would be that it would enroll students in the ninth grade, whereas Collins focuses on 11th and 12th grades.

He said one reason parents should consider the academy is the range of career opportunities in the fields it would prepare students for.

“STEM fields are where the good jobs are,” he said. “The largest employers in our region are the health and medical fields.”

He then introduced Jayshree Shah, who will serve as the school’s founding director, who has worked in Lawrence County schools as both an educator and administrator.

“This is exciting for me,” Shah said. “I am passionate about science. I consider myself a science teacher first and an administrator second.”

Shah said she was eager to begin hiring faculty and getting started.

“How many times can a teacher say their dream has come true?” she said of the chance to start a new school in her field.

She said the school seeks to provide students with a chance to apply what they learn to real life.

“That question from students of ‘Why do I need to learn this?’ I don’t want that,” Shah said.

Shah then introduced Alicia Spears, who has the distinction of being nationally board certified in physics and will serve as the school’s lead instructor.

She explained how the school would offer a different approach to education, offering hands on experience, based on inquiry-based and problem solving approaches, and was looking for self-directed learners.

“Instead of me standing there, delivering information to memorize, I will present a problem,” Spears said.

As an example, she gave a scenario regarding the Ohio River, which has been labeled one of the dirtiest rivers in the nation. She said students would be asked to come up with ways to indentify contaminant, prevent pollution and come with plans for clean up.

She said the school would be centered around the idea of mastery learning, in which achievement would be the driving force in assessing progress.

Instead of the standard grading system used in public schools, she said there would be two grades – an “A” for 90 percent and up and a “B” for 80-90 percent. Students would be required to master a subject and attain the “A” in order to move on to the next level.

Following the presentation, parents met with staff for a reception, while Spears took the prospective students outside to give them a taste of the school’s approach in the form of a design challenge.

They were given materials and asked to construct a device capable of catching an egg, dropped from above, and preventing it from shattering.

While some saw yolk splattered on the sidewalk, a few of the teams were able to pull of the feat and catch the eggs.

The deadline to apply to the school is April 2017. There will be no cost to students from Ohio to attend the academy, which is certified by the state as a public school. Students from West Virginia and Kentucky would have to pay a tuition fee.

Additional meetings will be open to the public at the Chamber headquarters at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20, Nov. 15, and Dec. 18 in 2016, and Jan. 12, Feb. 7 March 7 and March 28 in 2017.