Barrows STEM Academy has had a shining year. Here’s why.
A beautiful building, while wonderful, does not truly make a school. Within the walls of any building are the people who really are the school. The dedicated staff whose commitment to their craft creates an environment where kids feel welcome, safe and free to be curious.
As a teacher, I consider it a privilege to work with colleagues who are the manifestation of Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy. A uniting focus of our staff is STEM. It is more than part of our mission statement; it is a mantra and lens through which we look at our combined efforts. These efforts create learning situations in which students are naturally curious. This inquiry affords them opportunities to explore in a content-integrated environment; where learning is not in silos of knowledge, but a shared journey.
This year has been an outstanding year for us as we reach a decade as an institution. Our hard work and future vision saw us awarded a $27,000 grant by Voya Financials’ Unsung Heroes, the top award in the country and the only school in Connecticut to receive a grant from them. The award supports our urban farming/agricultural initiative that in a very timely sense, looks to educate students on how to improve access to fresh food in bio aware and sustainable ways.
Supported by donations from Burnett’s Country Gardens for plant material and Agrosci Inc. in Colchester, which donated an aerogation green wall and hydroponic equipment for students to create agricultural experiments with, our students learn the many ways plants can be grown and used. Partnerships with others further supports the idea that not only the people inside the building, but those who support it make a great school.
Additionally, a collaboration with Eastern Connecticut’s Conservation District is enabling us to rehabilitate our outdoor gardens, composting capacity and helps create a water collection system to further a green and sustainable process. Agriculture is a unifying element of our curriculum.
A common focus of inquiry has unified the professional learning community at Barrows. Curriculum is written by teachers, then revised and improved daily in an ongoing effort to refine the process and truly bring the best education possible to Barrows’ students. This daily work has resulted in the school being recognized by U.S. News and World Report as being in the top 20% of all elementary and middle schools in the state.
This year as we returned from the constantly changing and challenging world of the pandemic we were ready to share our new understandings. A number of our staff went to a National Science Teaching Association Conference in Texas where they shared what we have learned about the power of student discourse in education. In the time since the conference, educators around the country have reached out to these teachers for more information on how to bring this into their own practices. Barrows’ reach extends broader than the 26 communities we serve.
As a validation of the staff ’s united focus, we were the only school in Connecticut once again, and one of 27 schools nationally, to be recognized as a U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School. This high honor is powerful recognition of the staff ’s tireless effort to provide meaningful education that is real world and sustainability focused. This also included the work we do to not only teach but practice sustainability in composting, recycling, using organic cleaning materials, generating electricity, reducing electricity dependency and model what the future demands of the current generation.
This is a shining year for the school.
The hours and conversations held in impromptu meetings, our planning and refining and iterative nature are leading us to be the best for our students.