At The Hill School, there is a well-thought-out science to teaching science, both in the classroom and all around its magnificent 140-acre campus.

Harrison Schroder, a chemistry major at Middlebury College in Vermont, teaches sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. He works closely with lower school science teacher Susan McCaskey, Places Based Education teacher Mike Barreda and Grounds Supervisor Bob Dornin.

"Our program is based on student experiences and hands-on learning," Schroder said. "When they leave here and go to high school, we want them to know how to use a science text but also how to interpret data from the outside world."

And so, his sixth graders focus on ecology, nature, and environmental science. They study weather and weather patterns. And they also build their own hot-air balloons, the better, as Schroder said, "to figure out the best place to launch based on the wind and the temperature. They design them, and then they fly them."

His seventh graders have more of a physics focus. They study speed, velocity, acceleration, Newton's laws of motion, energy, sound, and light.

"We do one lab experiment every two weeks," Schroder said. "If we're doing an energy lab, the students will measure different objects they drop from the balcony of the gym. They'll do labs on skipping, walking backward, jumping, and then they have to graph the data."

Eighth graders are into chemistry. There are scads of experiments during the school year, many involving chemical reactions.

"The children plan them out themselves," Schroder said. "They write out the hypothesis and the procedure. They're also learning how to use all the equipment—Bunsen Burners, flasks, beakers. They deal with solids, liquids, and gasses. Again, all hands-on".

Harrison often works with Barreda and McCaskey, who specialize in science lessons based outdoors, throughout the school's extensive campus. There, each grade has at least two extended experiential lessons a year that include topics such as hypothermia, primitive shelter construction, and firebuilding.

McCaskey recalls these sessions as "practical lessons on temperature, combustion, and constructions -- thinking exercises and opportunities to find out what will work." Students explore their senses and learn to extend them to learn skills like using a compass to understand basic orienteering. The teachers often create dramatic situations to capture students' interest and introduce them to a variety of scientific concepts.

Another frequent Friday participant is Bob Dornin, Hill's Grounds Superintendent. He's also the son of an iconic and long-time Hill science teacher, the late Bob Dornin, who also believed in taking his students outside the classroom. Hill's science center off The Plains Road is named for "Mr. Dornin," and many of the school's PlaceBased Education sessions are now taught at the Dornin Lab.

"Mike Barreda is insatiably curious about the outdoors," Dornin said. "That's what he is bringing to these students. It's also amazing how it connects them to this property. We also plant trees, shrubs, and flowers, and many years later, some of those students will come back and say, 'hey, I planted that bulb or that tree over there.' It's an investment in the school."

Dornin recalled showing some third and fourth grade Hill students a nest of tent caterpillars in a tree located near a small pond. Dornin spread open the tent with his fingers, and one of the youngsters put his hand in and pulled out a caterpillar. Then he threw it into the water.

"Right away, it was gobbled up by a bass in the pond," Dornin said. "Pretty soon, all the children were sticking their hands in there and throwing them in the water. We had the fattest fish around that day."

Just another priceless lesson learned at Hill, where there's a real science to learning science.