HIGHLIGHTS OF 2017-2018 LOWER SCHOOL •
•
Kindergarten and Grade 4 students participated in a cross curricular, multi-grade project that required each student to become an expert of an assigned dinosaur, reading about it and writing a prepared set of facts to share with the Baldwin community. The completed interactive board was displayed at the School Maker Faire in April.
•
Grade 3 students participated in a research project focused on a national park. Each student requested information about their park from a park ranger and prepared a tri-fold board as a mock Visitor Center.
•
Grade 5 students worked in the DREAM Labtm for two months building four beautiful cedar picnic tables for Baldwin’s campus. During the course of the project, teams worked together to measure, cut, layout and construct the tables. At every stage, the students approached the new skills with curiosity, enthusiasm and confidence.
The Girls on the Run fitness club was created this year to help our students create healthy habits and build confidence through teamwork and communication. The program consists of 20 activity-based youth development lessons that are completed in 10 weeks. At the end of the program, the girls participated in a 5k to celebrate their hard work.
MIDDLE SCHOOL •
•
Grade 8 and 4 students partnered together to complete The Book Buddy Project, a collaborative, project-based learning and community building activity. Students cowrote short stories about an empowered protagonist, based on biographical information shared by each 4th grade participant during interviews conducted by 8th grade book buddies. Students then collaboratively generated ideas about plots from the fourth grader’s experiences. Together they completed the multifaceted writing process, including co-writing, revising, editing and designing original illustrations for the published book.
a two-day period, including: translating and interpreting coded maps, conducting forensic examination of an actual skeleton and modeling investigative techniques using online resources among others. •
The Middle School made a significant effort to implement education, active service and reflection as integral components to its approach to service-learning. Grade 6 students supported children in need by volunteering at the Smith Playground and at Project HOME. In conjunction with the grade 7 Social Studies curriculum, students packaged meals to be delivered across Philadelphia at the SHARE Food Program. In addition, grade 8 students cleared weeds and brush, gardened and prepared the outdoor spaces for visitors at Tookany/Talcony-Frankford Watershed as part of their Environmental Science curriculum.
•
Pranshu Suri `18 was named a 2018 U.S. Presidential Scholar, an award meant to recognize and honor our nation’s most distinguished graduating high school seniors. Of the 3.6 million students expected to graduate from high school this year, only 161 students are named as Presidential Scholars. Pranshu was also named a National Merit Scholarship winner and was chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding finalists in the 2018 program, based on the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies.
•
Six Upper School students won Scholastic Art awards and 17 students won a total of 26 writing awards, with four students winning Gold Key awards.
In December, Middle School students participated in the Baldwin Mystery Challenge, a hands-on, interdisciplinary experiential learning project. Teams of grade 6, 7 and 8 students developed their strategic thinking, communication and collaborative skills by completing a set of activities over
UPPER SCHOOL •
Eight students from the senior class were recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program. Cara Guernsey, Hilary Liu and Pranshu Suri were named Semifinalists and Melia Hagino, Olivia Isenberg-Landes, Sabrina Rustgi, Sara Syed and Emily Thompson were named Commended Students. The students were recognized for their outstanding performance on the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/ NMSQT®).
•
In honor of Earth Day, and as a capstone project for their senior elective, Environmental Science students took on the challenge of becoming experts on an environmental issue and then educating and acting on that issue as well. The semester-long project focused on the depletion and sustainability of common resources and tasked each student with teaching their topic to a Lower School class once completed.