Maple sugaring on campus is a tradition that dates back to 1922 or 1923 when Albert Baily, a Botany teacher, incorporated it into his curriculum. The process of tapping the maple trees, collecting the sap, and boiling it down into syrup has continued off and on and in various forms over the last one hundred years. Back in the day, Upper School student leaders oversaw the maple sugaring and were known as “Sap Heads.” Today, the sugaring process is stewarded by Upper School Outdoor Leadership students and students in the Lower School’s Farm and Forest classes under the direction of Chris Costa, Director of Outdoor Leadership, Tim Mountz, Sustainable Agriculture Teacher, and Bruce Harrison ’81 who revived the tradition in the late 90s and has been participating in the process with current students each year since. 

In late February, eight maple trees on campus were tapped by students, including the Grandmother Maple (located across from the Admission Office), which was tapped by first graders. The flow and collection buckets were monitored over a period of about two weeks. On March 8, the boil began in the pit on Sugar Hill, located in the woods behind the Meeting House. The sugaring teams kept watch over the fire, adding sap to the evaporator pan over the span of almost 11 (wet and cold!) hours, then the final cook down was done in the steam kettle in the kitchen for about two and a half hours. The boil began with 98 gallons of sap and it produced 3.75 gallons of syrup. Student groups stopped by the boil to stoke the fire, taste the sap, and observe the production. You can enjoy the gallery of photos here!

Let’s give a big round of applause for the performers, the behind-the-scenes students, and Teacher Alex Ates, Director of Theater Arts, who put on the Middle School musical, Ellsworth!! About 60 student actors and designers presented this world-premiere musical by James Bartelle and Ayla Miller about a brilliant economics professor (who happens to be a dog) and celebrating what makes you unique. Great job, Middle Schoolers!

Enjoy the whole gallery of photos from the production here. And check out the pre-production work here!

In teacher Natalie Cheung’s sixth-grade science class, students
took on the role of urban planners that specialize in renewable energies. They explored the question: How can we build greener cities? In the culminating project, students applied their knowledge by designing renewable energy plans for different cities based on their climate data, location, and population. In addition to communicating their plans in writing, students also designed ad campaigns intended to convince residents of the city to invest in and support the switch to their renewable energy plan. These kinds of real-world, hands-on projects are hallmarks of Westtown’s inquiry-driven science program.