Sean Geary of Albion and his son Henry Geary, 15 months, watch as steam rises above an evaporator while sap is made into maple syrup during MeANS Maple Sunday at Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Hinckley, on Sunday. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

FAIRFIELD — For ninth graders at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, maple sugaring is just one part of the curriculum.

At the school’s sugar shack on Green Road in Hinckley, just up the road from its campus off U.S. Route 201, a group of about 25 freshmen learned the process as part of a two-week intensive study, from tapping trees to bottling the final product.

The academy, Maine’s first public charter school, welcomed the public to the sugar shack on a windy Sunday morning as part of the 42nd Maine Maple Sunday Weekend. Along with demonstrations and live music, there were plenty of maple goodies for sale, from freshly fried doughnuts to chocolate maple bars.

“There’s not too many things that you can do education-wise where you can learn something and there’s an end product you can see,” Jeff Chase, the school’s agricultural specialist, said.

Chase, who also oversees the school’s apiary, greenhouses and blacksmithing, said students learned the entire syrup production process.

“We check out other sugarhouses,” he said. “We have kids tap trees. They collect the buckets. We learn all the history of maple sugaring. And then they come up and spend some time each day.”

Isla Henyan, 3, sips hot chocolate Sunday while sitting with her brother, Finnley Henyan, during the 42nd Maine Maple Sunday Weekend, at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Hinckley. The children are touring the event with their mother, Lizzie Henyan. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

The maple sugaring program is one of several two-week intensive programs the school requires students to complete, according to Evan Coleman, co-interim head of the school. Every season, each grade breaks from their regular schedules and does a two-week deep dive into some topic related to the natural sciences.

The Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, known as MeANS, opened as a charter school in 2012, and its curriculum focuses on hands-on projects. It follows a unique schedule: no classes on Mondays, half days on Fridays and a shorter summer break.

It now enrolls 120 to 130 students on campus and another 80 in its hybrid program, Coleman said.

The school has always offered maple sugaring among its varied courses since its inception in 2011. It used to use a sugar shack on the neighboring campus of Kennebec Valley Community College until 2019 when it finished construction on its own nearby on Green Road.

“It’s just a really nice environment to be here,” said 11th grader Kennadi Grivois-Collins of Sidney, who was volunteering at Sunday’s event, selling the bottled maple syrup.

Sean Geary of Albion and his son, Henry, 15 months, watch Sunday as steam rises above an evaporator, top right, while the sap is made into maple syrup during the 42nd Maine Maple Sunday Weekend, at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Hinckley. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Coleman said this was the second year the school was listed on the Maine Maple Producers Association map for Maine Maple Sunday Weekend, an annual tradition that drew curious minds and maple lovers to more than 100 sugarhouses across the state over two days.

Organizers of the event at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences’ sugarhouse said they were seeing some new faces, in addition to several familiar ones, including students and their families.

Chase, the instructor, and Danni Best, the school’s retired dean of students, said they were also seeing many alumni return to visit Sunday, a clear sign that learning maple sugaring was a valuable lesson that had stuck with them.

“It is the coolest school in the state of Maine. That’s what I tell everybody,” Best said. “Where else do you get to make maple syrup, tap trees and boil syrup?”