- September 5, 2026
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At Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy, 27 fourth and fifth grade students are learning at their own pace with the help of AI.
Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy has been chosen as one of five charter schools in the United States to launch the Ethos AI Experiential Academy, a pilot program that is “reimagining what school can look like for students in today’s rapidly changing world.”
Bradley Warren, administrator of leadership and innovation at Lakewood Ranch Prep, said he has wanted to participate in a program like this for quite some time. Rather than replacing teachers, Ethos AI serves as a “Socratic tutor” personalized to students’ needs and interests.
“Students receive individualized guidance, immediate feedback and adaptive support that empowers them to move as quickly as possible through core academic standards, while building confidence and ownership over their learning,” Warren said.
The program is led by Success Coach Jessica Adams, who Warren described as a “certified teacher with a STEM background, a passionate curiosity and years of experience in project-based learning.”
"Traditional learning was made for factory workers and all the kids were sitting in a row learning the same exact thing," Jessica Adams said. "It isn't meant for creativity, and this allows them to be in control and have their own passions. There's so much time built in the schedule for them to explore what they're really interested in."
The program is based around commodore cycles, which means the students learn for 25 minutes and then have five minutes of break.
Amanda Wood, the mother of fifth grader Wyatt Wood, said the breaks allow students to release energy and “reset their brains.”
“Instead of punishing children for behaving like children, the structure recognizes that movement can actually help them become better learners,” Amanda Wood said. “The academics are not being watered down. It’s quite the opposite. Teachers are finding ways to make learning relevant, engaging and applicable to real life.”
For fourth grader Wyatt Wood, the program unlocks creativity through drawing, experimenting and producing a short spy film with classmates. With tools like Canva, students are editing audio, trimming footage and shaping stories.
“Projects don’t even feel like work,” Wood said.
Fifth graders Valentina Alvarez-Hernandez and Anaya Patel both agree that self-paced work allows them to have more fun while also learning about critical thinking.
One of the projects is called "Little Paws, Big Impact." The school is partnering with Nate's Honor Animal Rescue to bring dogs to kindergarten students to practice their reading (and hopefully get a few dogs adopted as well).
"It'll help our community because we think the little kids will be able to get interactions with animals," Alvarez-Hernandez said. "They also feel special reading to dogs because they don't get judged, corrected or interrupted."
“At Ethos AI Academy, wellness is not treated as an extra — it is embedded into the design of the school day,” Warren said.
Adams said rather than acting as a traditional teacher, she is more so the “course master.” She said the use of AI is efficient as not every student needs to wait for help from her. She is still there ready to help if the students do need teacher intervention.
In order for the participants to be part of it, they had to have good collaboration skills, be able to independently work, and possess grit and resilience to meet challenges.
Fifth graders Betsi Branscomb and Raegan Standifer are part of a student-run newspaper within the AI Academy’s journalism group. Through it, they interview the principal, select staff spotlights, track world news and even create comics and jokes.
While they recognize that opinions about AI can be polarized, both students encourage skeptics to try it with an open mind. They believe AI can become a helpful everyday tool.
"If the people who hate it learn how to use it properly, they would probably like it more," Branscomb said.
Warren said what makes Ethos AI Academy especially exciting is that students are learning how to use AI in an ethical way instead of being passive consumers of technology. They are using it as a tool for growth, inquiry and innovation.
Adams said that while it is an AI program, the students are only on their iPads for about an hour-and-a-half per day.
She said the students go through training on what information is safe to share and makes sure they know that they are still "training the bot" so not every piece of information it gives will be accurate.
Fifth grader Liam Evans said he knows people think AI will "take over the world" but he is eager to dive into the experience. However, he knows AI doesn't do the work for him.
"Since it is AI and it's a new AI they just built, there's going to be a lot of wrong answers," Evans said. "It can just crash down, so we're basically holding it up."
There is also a waitlist, so the hope is to expand that number by January.
"Watching students actively engage with AI-supported learning, collaborate across grade levels, tackle authentic challenges and articulate their goals and growth is something that is difficult to fully capture," Warren said. "These students are truly breaking new ground."
