SPRINGVILLE, N.Y. — Students at Springville Elementary are learning all about how maple syrup is made with some help from the school district's "sugar shack."
2 On Your Side's Kate Welshofer took a drive to Springville on Friday to check it out for herself.
The sugar shack has been around for a few years, according to Principal Chris Scarpine.
"We built the shack in 2019-20, and we've been running the program with our fifth-graders and exposing the rest of our K-5 team for the last two or three years," Scarpine.
According to Scarpine, the students are very involved in the process.
"They learned the process before on how to tap the tree; they collect the sap," Scarpine said.
"So we have the maple tree and the sap comes up through the roots in the ground and comes out of the tap we have and it leaks into the bucket," said Abby French, a fifth-grader at Springville Elementary. "And then we take it over to the sugar shack and boil all of the water out, and then we're just left with the sugar."
Scarpine says the school district's former superintendent, Kimberly Morris, made it all possible. There are various taps around the elementary school and in the town, according to French.
Jon Chadek, a fifth-grade math teacher, is the expert boiler at the sugar shack, according to Scarpine.
"I got some real good helpers that are really interested in it," Chadek said. "A lot of times I'll have one of the students keeping an eye on the thermometer. I'll have other students looking at the tank, and I'll teach them different things that they need to know about warning signs for if it's getting too hot or if it's boiling."
Scarpine says it's a fulfilling experience for the students to see the process from start to finish.
"I think it's a very fulfilling experience for the kids when you take a very raw product like sap and the end result is syrup," Scarpine said. "It's very satisfying for the kids to see that start to finish process, something that doesn't happen a lot in schools, so this is one of those opportunities where they can start with something very raw and end up with something very sweet."
As for the end product, Scarpine says the product is shared locally.
"We have it here locally. We try to keep it close to the vest so we can put in our maple cake here at school. But yeah, we do share it with a lot of people," Scarpine said.