By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — The Maine School of Science and Mathematics has made national news yet again, this time for being ranked the 14th best math and science high school in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Just another day in the chemistry lab at the Maine School of Science and Mathematic, as students David Reily, at left, and Klaas Pruiksma perform a qualitative analysis of ions.
Officials with the magnet school were pleased to have the hard work and dedication of their students and faculty recognized through the national magazine ranking.
“This is a powerful testament to the quality of our state’s public education system,” said MSSM Executive Director Luke Shorty. “As Maine seeks to expand its knowledge-based economy and retain talent in its workforce, MSSM is proving to be a sound public investment.”
The school’s distinctive ranking was announced on Sept. 28 and elected officials eagerly offered their congratulations to the top-ranking public boarding school in Limestone.
“Since opening its doors in 1995, MSSM has been a center of academic excellence in our state,” said U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe. “The students, staff and faculty — not to mention the entire state of Maine, can certainly be proud of this tremendous achievement.”
Shorty attributed the school’s success to the teachers who hold the MSSM academic bar extremely high.
“There is no ceiling on the MSSM curriculum,” Shorty explained.
There’s one student in the school, for instance, who’d exhausted the school’s mathematics curriculum. Differential equations, calculus and multi-variable calculus, linear algebra — the standard courses wouldn’t challenge the student.
Keep in mind, courses like linear algebra are so advanced, they’re above the AP (advanced placement) curriculum; at the Maine School an Science and Mathematics, AP courses tend to be mid-level courses for most of the school’s subjects.
Educators coordinated an advanced mathematics class studying real analysis to meet that particularly advanced student’s need to learn. Real analysis is an intense mathematical proof course which, at many colleges, is a course that’s taught at the sophomore level at the earliest.
Mathematics instructor Kevin Joyce teaches the course one-on-one with his student; last Friday, they spent part of the mid-afternoon determining whether or not the square root of two was a real number. (Turns out that it is).
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Maine School of Science and Mathematics student Graham Howard of South Portland carefully dissects an old DVD player for its pieces that can be used for robotics applications.
Instances like that are what Shorty means when he says that there’s no ceiling on MSSM’s curriculum; if the student expresses the desire, the drive, and the passion, MSSM instructors expand the curriculum to nurture their student’s passion for learning.
Shorty, an MSSM graduate himself, recalled a tag-line the school had earned when he was a student back in the late ‘90s: “Teachers that want to teach and students that want to learn.”
“That still holds true,” Shorty said.
As he explained, MSSM students have a strong need and urge to learn as much as they can and the magnet school environment enables them to do just that.
“Our students are highly motivated and high-achieving,” said Shorty.
“MSSM is a community of learners who all share this spark, this motivation to learn,” he added.
As more and more former MSSM students return to the magnet school to teach after earning their master’s and doctorates from some of the country’s top schools, the students reap the academic awards with engaging, creative topics and projects.
MSSM will be holding an Open House this weekend on Sunday, Oct. 9 and Monday, Oct. 10. Multiple open houses will be offered throughout the year, and Shorty encourages interested students and curious educators alike to attend.
Additional information regarding MSSM can be obtained by calling 325-3601 or by visiting www.MSSM.org.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Is the square root of two a real number? It turns out that it is, but mathematics instructor Kevin Joyce was teaching a student how to prove how and why the square root of two is a real number.
