George Wolfe has built the school of his dreams. He is founding director of the Academy of Science (AOS)—an HHMI-supported program in Loudoun County, Virginia. Now in its fifth year of operation, the AOS matches an integrated, inquiry-based science and math curriculum with motivated students who alternate days between their public high school and the academy campus.
In a recent telephone interview, excerpted here, Wolfe shared his thoughts on the guiding philosophy of the AOS, why biology should never be taught before physics, and how owning a question is better than knowing its answer.