News

Falmouth Water Stewards (FWS) is committed to protecting, preserving and restoring Falmouth’s bays, estuaries, salt ponds, and freshwaters through education, advocacy, and citizen science. FWS will hold its annual meeting on Thursday, July 18 at the Falmouth Public Library where it will award its first environmental stewardship award to Jayne Abbott of Waquoit for her work with estuaries. The board will also announce the creation of the David Palmer Scholarship Fund for Falmouth high school graduates pursuing environmental studies.

There is a certain gravitas to the word “executive.” Chief Executive Officers head up corporations, they sometimes are assigned executive coaches, they wear suits labeled as “executive fit,” and they are said to make “executive decisions.”

A rite of passage, it seems, for any toddler, is earning the oohs and aahs of an audience by raising one’s arms in response to the familiar prompt, “How big is (insert toddler’s name)? Soooooo big!!!” My nephew’s parents, perhaps longing for a slightly less cliche toddler call and response, would instead say, “Finnie, strong man!” in response to which Finn would clench his fists, flex his biceps and pecs, and scrunch up his facial muscles until he looked like a cross between Popeye and a member of the Lollipop Guild.

Ninth graders tried out new sets of hip waders at Little Sippewissett Marsh this week during a field study led by Geology and Environmental Science teacher Liz Klein. 

Falmouth Academy, I’ve discovered, is good with names. What others might call “Prize Day” is known here as “Recognition Day.” What others call “Oral Presentation Day” is known here as “Declamation Day.” But I think my favorite example of rebranding, so to speak, is the senior capstone project known as the “Major Effort.”

“Before we begin our meal tonight, raise your hand if you were involved with the harvesting, preparation, cooking, or serving of tonight’s meal.” So begins another meal at The Farm School, “an organization of three interweaving programs spread out over the land of four old family farms.”

As part of a nutrition lesson in 8th grade Wellness for Life class, students gathered in small groups in Morse kitchen to make smoothies and learn about micronutrients, vitamins, and nutrition. Ms. DiFalco explained that the colors of various foods indicate their antioxidant and nutrient composition. She encouraged students to eat from a “rainbow” of foods for overall physical and mental health and emphasized the mind/body connection.

In biology class, students have been studying microbiology, learning about viral and bacterial structures and how each can cause disease, though most kinds of bacteria are harmless to us and many are critical in our own microbiomes or to the environment. As part of this unit, students designed and carried out two experiments with bacteria. In one, bacteria content from two locations in the environment around us were tested, and in the other, agents that inhibit bacteria were compared.

On March 7th and 8th, Falmouth Academy students attended the Massachusetts DECA State Career Development Conference for the first time as part of the DECA elective offered this year by Mr. Ed Lott. Ben Schwenk '19, Ethan Fan '20, Logan Moniz '22, Jack Butler '22, accompanied by Mr. Lott, traveled to the Copley Marriott in Boston for two days of lectures, competition, networking, and fun.

For many Falmouth Academy teachers and students, the term “spring vacation” is a bit of a misnomer. Some were elbow deep in the culture and history of Thailand; others were busily “exchanging” with our partner school in Germany. Some were competing in the South Shore Regional Science Fair and others in the Junior District Music Festival. And as I peer out my window this chilly “spring” morning, I even see a group of dedicated scholar athletes readying themselves for the coming lacrosse season.

It likely would not surprise you to learn that in middle and high school, I did not identify as an athlete. Perhaps it was because my three older brothers played college sports, or perhaps it was because my high school counted among its alumni countless division one athletes–a few who even went on to play professionally. However, I knew that it would be the classroom, not the rink, the gym, or the field, that would be the arena wherein I would perform with the most confidence.

Juniors and seniors had the opportunity to talk face-to-face with author and alumna Kristen Roupenian ’99 prior to her speaking about her writing journey to an adult audience at a Falmouth Academy Community Series event. Thoughtfully, the students had prepared questions prior to her talk and seniors Lenie Draper and Gedeon Pil moderated the discussion.

Seventeen middle school students met on multiple Saturdays in January and February to prepare for a Model United Nations conference that was held at Clark University on February 23rd.  In the weeks leading up to the event, students learned about their countries and one of four important global issues:water privatization, food security, corruption in Crimea, and one historical issue—the oil crisis of 1973. Students wrote position papers that described the global problem, their country's position on the problem, and their suggested solution.

One of the most iconic television show theme songs is from Mission Impossible. You know it. “Dunt, dun . . . dunt, dunt, dunt, dunt . . . dunt, dunt, dunt, dunt . . . dunt, dunt, duuun.” You may already be humming along! Worthy missions, though, are not impossible; but they ought to be aspirational; and Falmouth Academy’s certainly is. Yes, most school mission statements can be a bit like burritos; that is, a little overstuffed, and in keeping with that tradition, ours is a bit of a mouthful!

Earlier this month, Virgin Galactic flew Charlie Fenske ’18 to Washington, DC, to celebrate the donation of “RocketMotorTwo” to the collection of artifacts at the National Air and Space Museum. Dubbed by the Guiness Book of World Records the "most powerful hybrid rocket to be used in manned flight,” the artifact will be part of the “Future of Spaceflight” exhibit at the Museum scheduled to open in 2024.

One of my many secret vices is that I am a long-time and devoted fan of the show “Project Runway,” in which host Heidi Klum guides a collection of aspiring fashion designers through a series of weekly challenges. My favorite episode each season is invariably the “unconventional materials challenge,” which requires our would-be fashionistas to design high-end avante garde ensembles from materials like pet supplies, Hallmark cards, candy, burlap potato sacks, even items mined from junkyards or grocery stores. I am always in awe of what the designers dream up and bring to life.

I had the privilege of attending the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast, an event sponsored by our town’s No Place for Hate chapter. I was joined by five teachers and eight students from Falmouth Academy, and together we took in an inspirational morning that offered us the opportunity to hear from some powerful speakers, enjoy a little music and song, and break bread in fellowship with 300+ of our neighbors. While we may have differed in race, religion, class, age, orientation, and political affiliation, we shared a commitment not only to honoring Dr. King’s legacy in the moment but more importantly to living into and enacting his dream.

So begins K.J. Dell’antonia’s short essay in Time Magazine, in which she urges us parents to raise our children in houses where glasses are half-full, to immerse them in marinades of positive thinking. She cites studies that suggest that “optimists are more resilient. They make better entrepreneurs, experience better health outcomes, live longer and are more satisfied with their relationships.” She contends that “optimism enables people to continue to strive in the face of difficulty, while pessimism leaves them depressed and resigned to failure — even expecting it.”

We school folks tend not to view the changing of the calendar as the start of anything particularly noteworthy. We save our countdowns for evenings in June, and September 6 or thereabouts is our New Year’s Day, a day brimming with promise, opportunity and resolutions to do things if not better, certainly differently. Folks in the real world, however, seem to take this changing of the calendar year rather seriously. They cling to a number change because, unlike us, they have few authentic beginnings and endings, both of which, I am convinced, can be meaningful opportunities for reflection, reinvention, and, of course, resolution. So in that spirit, I thought I would tell you two stories that book-ended one winter break of mine from a few years back.