Innovation

A Culture of Innovation

Innovation on Campus

Berwick Academy fosters a unique culture of innovation through our curriculum, classroom instruction, our nationally recognized Berwick Innovation Center, the Innovation Pursuit® program, and the Inspiration Commons facility.

In the Classroom

Berwick is committed to a student-directed, skills-based approach that encourages collaborative and interdisciplinary work among faculty and students. Student-directed, skills-based learning puts a focus on knowing through doing. Our most advanced Pinnacle courses emphasize actual research, interdisciplinary connections, and grappling with real-world problems.

Pinnacle Program

As the most rigorous academic classes in each discipline, Pinnacle courses focus on depth over breadth and encourage students to confront ideas and problems that are authentic, stretch their thinking, and foster an appreciation of deep knowledge. A hallmark of Pinnacle courses are varied assessments which allow students to demonstrate their acquisition of skills, content mastery, and depth of inquiry, while providing context for their future work as young scientists, writers, artists, performers, historians, mathematicians, and engineers. 

Pinnacle courses also afford students opportunities for choice within the structure of the class that allow them to pursue an aspect of the subject matter that captures their interest. Finally, Pinnacle courses aim to include authentic experiences which ask students to apply their knowledge outside the boundaries of Berwick Academy. As with all advanced courses, students who complete a Pinnacle course receive a designation on their transcript. 

Curriculum in Action

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  • Design Engineering in Lower School Science

    In the Lower School science classes, students learn the design engineering process involved in researching, identifying, designing, making and testing solutions to student-identified local questions and to simulations of real-world problems.  
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  • Applied Physics

    Throughout this advanced, project-based course, students are challenged to demonstrate real-world applications of physics, mathematics and engineering concepts.
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  • Middle School Global Ex Program

    Global Ex is a student-driven, collaborative project integrating seventh grade science, world cultures, and art in the long term exploration of a country in a particular region of the world. 
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Berwick Academy

Berwick Academy, situated on an 80-acre campus just over one hour north of Boston, serves 550 students, Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 and Post-Graduates. Berwick students are from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and several countries. Deeply committed to its mission of promoting virtue and useful knowledge, Berwick Academy empowers students to be creative and bold. Berwick strives to graduate alumni who shape their own learning, take risks, ask thoughtful questions, and come to understand and celebrate their authentic selves.