history

History

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The MSSM is a public residential magnet school chartered and funded by the Maine State Legislature. A residential community committed to the pursuit of academic excellence, the MSSM provides an extensive and challenging curriculum in science, mathematics, technology, and the arts and humanities.
The MSSM was created by the 116th Maine Legislature in 1995 and is a member of the National Consortium of Specialized Secondary Schools of Science, Mathematics, and Technology.

The Maine School of Science and Mathematics opened with a pioneer class in 1995. At that time, it was only the eleventh statewide residential magnet school specializing in mathematics and science education in the United States and the only school of its kind in New England. Both remain true today.

While MSSM students come from diverse backgrounds, one common purpose prevails-the enthusiasm, desire, and motivation for, as well as the commitment to, learning. The challenging curriculum and stimulating environment create an ongoing learning experience with students working, studying, and socializing with classmates who share similar interests and goals.

More Than Just A School

The students have a desire to learn.

The school is all about learning and that is the primary goal: to learn new things, expand horizons, and come out a better person.

The teachers have a desire to teach.

Imparting knowledge is not sufficient for a teacher at the MSSM--a teacher must take the extra step for students, whether this means having a pizza party while watching Shakespeare after class or simply being available for students to visit for assistance with a difficult homework problem or perplexing lab write-up.

The MSSM is a close-knit community.

As an entity, the school is small (approximately 150 students each year) and with this smallness comes the ability for students to know everyone at the school. Furthermore, our teachers have fewer students than most other schools and can forge friendships with them, blurring the distinction between teacher and friend. Without the distance between instructor and student there is more dialog, a better mutual understanding, and this allows us to achieve our ultimate goal of helping students to produce exemplary work.Students are also very close and living in the dormitory environment not only helps prepare students for college life, but also teaches tolerance, mediation, and compromise.

The MSSM is more than just a high school.

In addition to our yearly high school curriculum, we also provide students with the opportunity to do specialized learning, such as an internship, research on a topic, extending learning from regular class (such as calculus), and many other projects. Many of these projects and courses of study are completed during our unique January Term program (known as J-Term).

Outside the high school realm, the MSSM also offers younger students academic summer camps, for boys and girls in grades 5 through 9.

We also periodically offer math workshops for mathematics instructors to hone their skills, learn new ones, and see alternate teaching techniques in action.

It's a multifaceted place!

We offer much more than just a high school education, despite it being our primary focus. Our rigorous curriculum, our active extracurriculars, and our successful students all point to the fact that we're doing lots of things right up here in Northern Maine. So continue browsing and learn more about the MSSM.