Innovators in Girls’ Education Since 1888
The Future of Education The future is hard to predict but, at Baldwin, we continually update our program with our girls’ future in mind. Whether your daughter is starting Kindergarten or high school, the only definite is that the world will change considerably as she grows into an adult over the next few decades. As we prepare Baldwin students to follow their dreams and become ambassadors, astronauts or actors, we know that the skills they need to succeed require innovative, forward-looking approaches to teaching and curriculum development.
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Future Trends for Girls
85% ofwillthehavejobsinstudents
By the time they are 40,
2O3
today’s learners will have held
8-1O jobs
don’t exist today
Research shows the
top 5 skills needed in the 21st Century are:
93
%
of girls’ school graduates say they were offered greater leadership opportunities than peers at coed schools
Teamwork Collaboration
The future workforce will need to be adaptable thinkers and
Leadership
life-long learners
Confidence Resilience
Emotional
A majority of
intelligence is
educators say
a crucial skill
student-led
for tomorrow’s
learning
leaders
develops
21
st
century skills
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Interdisciplinary Learning At Baldwin, we are reimagining our curriculum to further nurture our girls’ skills as flexible, collaborative problem-solvers able to draw connections across disciplines, communicate across boundaries and work well in teams. Studying the changing nature of higher education and the 21st century workforce ensures that our curricular programming will ensure future success for our girls. Interdisciplinary studies provide the foundation for this sort of rich learning. It helps Baldwin students gain a deeper understanding of multiple disciplines and learn more than just content. Our innovative approach to cross-disciplinary study gives our girls both the knowledge basis and ability to apply what they learn in ways that will help them find creative solutions to any challenge they face, at school or beyond. It is the best way to prepare our graduates for the fast-paced, everchanging world that awaits them.
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Research Shows Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning has Long-Lasting Benefits • It encourages higher order thinking and de-emphasizes memorization • It helps students learn what is relevant to the real world • It increases student motivation and love of learning • It provides opportunities for students to collaborate and practice communication and social skills • It helps students understand not just what to learn, but how to learn too Source: The Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching
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Learning in Action Faculty already capitalize on the connections between disciplines, bridging Science and Social Studies through documentary films on natural disasters, connecting English and History through stories of refugees, and more. In the coming years, our strategic vision will build on this foundation with new programs and curricular offerings. In class, students will explore overlapping concepts through discussions, research and special projects. We will also set aside time for more in-depth interdisciplinary work through our Interdisciplinary Institute and Interdisciplinary Incubator Expo. In the Middle and Upper Schools, the School will pause regular classes for a week in the spring to dive into our Interdisciplinary Institute. During this specially scheduled program, students work with a team of faculty from different subjects to explore topics at the intersection of multiple disciplines.
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For example, our physics, math and music teachers will jointly lead students through a study of waves. They will consider how sound waves are formed, how those waves are mathematically represented and how they come together to create music. Another team of teachers will help students explore the structure of Greek drama and take ownership of creating their own play – from writing, set design and costume creation to acting and directing. The project concludes with a presentation of their play to the wider school community. In our Lower School, girls will work with their teachers over the school year to develop an interdisciplinary project to showcase in a culminating public expo. This year, students’ incubator work will focus on health and medicine, exploring the systems of the body and the impact of nutrition, exercise, technology and the environment on those systems. What, exactly, happens to our muscular system when we exercise? What effect do certain diseases have on different systems in the body? What environmental factors affect your health? Over the year, students will gain new knowledge and, by working with teachers and classmates to build their project, develop collaboration, communication and problem-solving skills.
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Connections in Context Students apply their learning by creating authentic projects based in real-world scenarios, helping them make connections between learning in the classroom and the world beyond. Tapping into the wealth of resources in our surrounding community and our extensive alumnae network, we also have experts from various fields partner with faculty and students on projects – to lead our girls in practice surgeries or serve on panels to judge students’ engineering projects – to help them develop their written voice for publication and more.
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At Baldwin, student learning also takes place beyond the classroom. Our students frequently present their work to classmates, parents, the entire school or in public fora. This builds their confidence in public speaking and provides them an opportunity to inspire others with their scholarship. It helps our girls see their learning in action and apply it in a real-world situation. This is why our science class visits an organic farm to understand the chemical and environmental processes of growing food; our Grade 9 students’ Experiential Learning Trip is aligned with their humanities and STEAM curriculum; and our teachers find other ways to help Baldwin students see their learning in action. It gives our girls the chance to apply all the skills and knowledge they learn in real-world settings, practice the teamwork they developed in the classroom and enhance their educational experience.
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Pursuing Passions Student passions drive learning at Baldwin. Across all ages, our girls’ interests inspire their learning. We help them connect their studies to the real world, so they develop a deeper interest in subjects and see where their passions might lead them in the future. Just a few examples: • Our Grade 3 girls Skype with climatologists at the North Pole to learn about climate change • Our Grade 7 girls research a global pandemic disease and develop ways to address it • Our Upper School girls work in university labs doing cutting-edge research with university students and professors
BALDWIN’S CHERRY TREES Our fifth graders were curious about the origins of Baldwin’s beloved cherry trees, so they began investigating our School’s own archives during social studies and science class. Along the way, they discovered information about the relationship between Japan and the U.S. in the 20th century, the botany of cherry trees and the history of the area around Baldwin. The fifth graders wrote and published a book to share what they learned with the world.
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Photo courtesy of Metro Kids
SKYSCRAPER VIDEO GAMES Fifth through eighth grade students excited about programming designed a video game in partnership with Drexel University. Creating the game required they learn advanced programming techniques, use trial and error to find solutions and practice resilience and teamwork. The team’s creation was ultimately selected to play on the side of the Cira Center during Philadelphia Tech Week.
FAIRY TALES REIMAGINED A senior elective course explores fairy tales and their relevancy in modern times. Working in pairs, students read and analyzed novels of their choice with fairy tale plots, then designed projects to interpret and evaluate the book through the lens of a traditional fairy tale. The girls also became practiced active storytellers, performing their version of the story for Baldwin’s fourth and fifth grades.
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Built for Girls Our experience and commitment to all-girls education makes us experts in how girls learn, thrive and succeed in school and in life – and we developed this curricular vision specifically with our girls in mind. Now, more than ever, Baldwin’s approach to a tailored education for girls gives our students invaluable opportunities at a crucial time in their development. We help them develop into confident, resilient and empathetic young women ready to lead the way and have impact, wherever they head next.
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The Impact of an All-Girls Education COUNTER GENDER STEREOTYPES Starting with our youngest students, we create pathways for our girls to pursue any and every field of interest, eliminating any preconceived stereotypes about their personal passion. Woven throughout our curriculum, accomplished women - female scientists, female authors, female artists and more serve as role models for our students. Our girls grow up with an unshakable confidence that any door is open to them. At Baldwin, every students’ passion can become reality.
ENCOURAGE A GROWTH MINDSET Baldwin’s focus on experiential, active learning helps girls cultivate a growth mindset whereby students learn that it’s not that they can’t understand a concept, it’s that they don’t understand it YET. Students are taught to try, fail, try again, maybe fail again, but keep trying. Our teachers achieve this by working closely with each girl, in and out of the classroom, to give qualitative feedback and provide one-on-one time to meet each girl where she is in her learning. Baldwin’s small class size also ensures that teachers can most effectively nurture our students’ resilience and passion for the learning process.
CREATE A VIBRANT SISTERHOOD Baldwin’s close-knit community creates a deeply felt sisterhood among our students and teachers. As part of this sisterhood, our girls feel supported and want to support their classmates. This unfolds naturally as they collaborate, share ideas and push each other to take risks as they learn. Across all grades and disciplines, our girls also learn to confidently present their ideas to their fellow Baldwin Bears and our wider community. This all helps prepare Baldwin students not just for college but for their careers and life.
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The day the drones came to play. Lower School students react to an interactive presentation exploring the STEAM concepts that make drones work. The students were quick to take their observations and connect them to the concepts being demonstrated – Newton’s Laws, torque, yaw and programming.
Innovations that Inspire A Love of Learning Baldwin is constantly innovating. Whether we are updating our physical campus to increase access to digital tools in our labs, classrooms and common spaces, using research-based, cuttingedge pedagogy to update our curriculum, finding new ways to give our girls authentic learning experiences during local and global trips, or connecting our girls with leading thinkers around the world. Our faculty and staff ensure that Baldwin stays ahead of the curve, providing our girls the very best, forward-looking education in the nation. We also hold fast to the belief that our students must love their time at school. Whether they are four or eighteen years old, Baldwin is our girls’ second home – where they have fun, feel nurtured and love learning. That’s why we celebrate the laughter we hear in our halls, the dancing and debating you see in the student lounges and the skipping that ensues as our youngest Bears cross campus.
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Future-Focused Curriculum Our curricular vision marks an evolution in education, not just for Baldwin but for schools more broadly, as it requires innovating aspects of traditional academic systems. To this end, our inspiring faculty have applied research and years of experience to update our calendar and daily schedule, course offerings, methods of teaching and more. It’s one more example of Baldwin’s continued leadership in education – and how our instructional model helps all Baldwin students, from Pre-K through Grade 12, study multiple disciplines through authentic projects with real-world applications. This ensures that our girls explore course content more deeply, practice using knowledge in context and develop a lifelong passion for learning.
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The Baldwin School, an independent college preparatory school, develops talented girls into confident young women with vision, global understanding and the competency to make significant and enduring contributions to the world. The School nurtures our students’ passion for intellectual rigor in academics, creativity in the arts and competition in athletics, forming women capable of leading their generation while living balanced lives.
701 Montgomery Avenue Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 | (610) 525-2700