By Alice Waugh
Lincoln’s Birches School, which opened four years ago with just five students, made the cover of the winter 2016 issue of Independent School magazine and is poised to add a sixth grade for 2016-17.
Birches was founded by a group of parents and an advisory board who wanted a small, nature-based independent school that would teach STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) through hands-on exploration and projects. It’s named after Robert Frost’s poem Birches, which describes a boy learning by experimentation how to launch himself from bent birch trees in the woods.
Teachers write their own curricula for students, who are grouped by ability level. The curriculum, which was accredited by the Lincoln School Committee, meets or exceeds Common Core standards, and the school has been accepted into the lengthy accreditation process for the Association of Independent Schools of New England.
Lesson plans
During their Native American unit in the fall, Birches students made acorn flour and learned about the history and uses of wigwams and then applied their math and engineering skills to build their own wigwam on the playground. They also had to calculate how many square feet of birch bark they would need to cover the structure. Fortunately, Cecily Wardell—a Birches co-founder and Director of Admission and Placement as well as a parent—had some dead trees on her property that helped supply the bark.
In the Independent School magazine story, Birches STEM teacher and Associate Head Katherine Parisky describes her journey from being a research scientist to using an inquiry-based as well as nature-based approach to teaching children. For example, when her students asked why some leaves turn different colors in the fall and others don’t, she used a simple paper chromatography process to show them the red, orange and yellow colors hidden inside the green summer leaves and had the kids predict the colors that different types of leaves would assume in the fall.
Along with learning by getting close to nature, one of the underlying Birches principles is mindfulness—“living in the present moment, focusing on the present task, observing, feeling, looking, and thinking,” said Head of School Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis. “It’s part of the scientific method to look carefully, listen, be attentive, and be focused.”
Enrollment grows by tenfold
Housed in the First Parish’s stone church on Bedford Road, the school now has 40 students in grades K-5 and a waiting list. About a third of the students are Lincoln residents, with the rest coming from 11 other cities and towns. There are now five full-time teachers; five part-time specialist teachers in yoga, music, art, Spanish, and robotics; and a new after-school program. Students can now participate in LEGO robotics events, and they put on the school’s first musical last year.
Next year, students will study the Colonial and Federal periods as they also learn about current government in the runup to the Presidential election. There are also plans afoot to stage a play written for children by Charles Stearns, one of the founders of the first school in Lincoln in 1792. Two copies of his book of short plays was discovered in the Lincoln Public Library, and Birches hopes to produce one of them for the first time in 200 years.
Once it adds the sixth grade, the school will be maxed out for space. “That’s very much on our minds,” ten Grotenhuis said, adding that the staff has been surprised and pleased by the school’s growth. However, if Birches eventually has to relocate to bigger quarters, the school wants to stay in Lincoln on the edge of conservation land.
“We’re a micro school and will never be anything other than that,” said ten Grotenhuis. “And we treasure being in Lincoln because we can truly take advantage of the multitude of outdoor clasrooms that exist.”
The Birches School will have an open house on Sunday, Jan. 10 from 1:30-3:30 p.m., and parents and others can see what’s going on at the school through words and photos in the Birches blog.