Its 2:00pm on Friday and Steve Auslander’s Imagination Chapter is well underway. Laptops, LEGOs, play-doh and notebooks are strewn about and the classroom is alive with excited chatter, music and the making of crazy inventions.

Each of Auslander’s Allisonville Elementary fifth graders is huddled into a group of three or four. In the center of the classroom, a group of boys and girls hunch over their work station eagerly connecting a lime and a banana to their laptop.

Location: Indianapolis, IN  ·   Category: Imaginative Schools

On a stifling hot day in East Los Angeles, Mara Bond walks us through the maze of classrooms that make up KIPP: Iluminar Academy. Her blonde hair is swept into a loose ponytail and she’s eager for us to step inside. We first enter a classroom where kids are huddled around their teacher on the edge of a checkered carpet. The room is a burst of colors—reds, blues, and greens. Kids’ artwork is on display, and each child wears a bright blue KIPP: Iluminar polo shirt tucked neatly into their khaki pants. The teacher asks the students loudly, “What do we have?” The kids shout, “Imagination!”

Location: East Los Angeles, California  ·   Category: Imaginative Schools

Over the last several decades, the once-thriving city of Detroit has become synonymous with three troubling words: unemployment, crime, and bankruptcy. These problems have forced thousands of families to leave Detroit—and most don’t come back. Since 1950, the population of Detroit has fallen from 1.86 million to 700,000 residents. About 80,000 buildings in the city remain abandoned. Shoshanna Utchenik, a local artist and art teacher, is one of the many who left, but one of the few who returned to the Motor City.

Location: Detroit, Michigan  ·   Category: Imaginative Schools

Did you know that Nobel laureates in the sciences are 25 times more likely than other scientists to sing, dance, or act? That they are 17 times more likely to be a visual artist, 12 times more likely to write poetry and literature, and four times more likely to be a musician? Take, for example, Alexander Graham Bell. He may be known for inventing the telephone, but he was also a talented pianist. In fact, it was his understanding of pitch and chords that helped him create the world-changing device responsible for connecting billions of people across the globe.

Location: Chandler, Arizona  ·   Category: Imaginative Schools

One morning, a fifth grader walked into Mark Greenberg’s office at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Her laptop was open, she was a minute and a half early, and she spoke confidently about her idea for making and selling bracelets. She was “as tall as my waist” and “relentless,” Greenberg, the executive director of the school’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), remembers.

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  ·   Category: Imaginative Schools