Old Saybrook, Conn., April 23, 2024 – At their annual conference in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 24, 2024, the New England League of Middle School (NELMS) awarded Old Saybrook Middle School’s Saybrook Studies course with the Beane-Brodhagen Exemplary Integrated Unit Award. This prestigious honor is given annually to schools that incorporate middle-level best practices throughout instruction and assessment, set high expectations for all students, and create a comprehensive and inclusionary unit that actively involves students in decision-making that connects them with the greater community.
In correspondence received from Jeff Rodman, Executive Director of NELMS, he writes, “It is my honor and pleasure to inform Old Saybrook Middle School that “Saybrook Studies" has been selected as a NELMS Beane-Brodhagen Exemplary Integrated Unit Award recipient. This impressive unit exemplifies the best in middle-level practices and philosophy.”
Old Saybrook Studies is a hands-on, experiential learning course taught by Mark Carroll, Tim Wood, and Robert Labriola, connecting our town's past with the present. Students take part in various authentic activities involving history, sociology, and economics, leading up to a self-selected project. Town resources and locations such as the Hart House and Stevenson Archives, countless local businesses, Cypress Cemetery, Old Saybrook Town Hall, and the Chamber of Commerce have been utilized. One of the course's primary goals is to build strong relationships with local business owners throughout the community and use them to help teach students about owning and operating a business. Because of the Middle School’s location, it is possible for students and staff to take walking trips to visit locations around town and learn from local experts.
According to Interim Principal Matt Walton, “For many years, teachers at the Middle School would sit and collaborate, dreaming of an opportunity to create a reimagined classroom called, “Saybrook Studies.” The time spent planning, talking, and imagining led to a conversation with the administration and the superintendent. Ultimately, it became a class that every eighth-grade student will take.”
Students use class time to learn, build, and create, and they have a voice and choice in what and how they learn. Their ideas include such diverse topics as partnering with a local business, conducting an archeological dig, using the greenhouse to study hydroponics and/or aquaponics, taking and analyzing water samples from North Cove, building crab traps, designing boats, magnet fishing, building fishing rods, conducting genealogical research, working on the preservation and documentation of Cypress Cemetery, documenting the lives of the enslaved population from Saybrook's past, developing an Old Saybrook Middle School Museum based on artifacts uncovered on school property, model-building, and photography along with many others. All student-created products and archeological finds are displayed in the school’s local history museum.