Fairport Central School District provides several summer school programs each year to meet the different needs of students. One of the programs is STAR (Students and Teachers Achieving Results), a general education remedial program for students entering grades 6-8 and ENL 9th graders that runs half days from July 9 through August 1. STAR was created to keep students progressing, engaged, and excited about learning over the summer. The teachers of the STAR Program are passionate and dedicated to bringing academic concepts to life using hands-on activities and simply making learning fun. This summer’s theme is “CSI.”
The STAR Program provides an interdisciplinary and thematic approach to learning. Students were introduced to the program’s goldfish named “Star” on the first day of classes, but by the end of the week, Star went missing! For the duration of the program, students are working together to read Forensics Squad Unleashed by Monique Polak to go with CSI theme. They are learning how to investigate a crime scene, take notes and measurements as a detective, lift fingerprints, and interrogate suspects to solve the crime. Each week the program ends with a “Friday Fun Day” where students have a friendly class competition to earn bragging rights for the following week.
Ashley Edwards, a social studies at the high school, is working with the STAR program. “This program does more than teach students about numbers and grammar, it gives them an opportunity to learn about important social skills, work alongside their peers as innovative problem-solvers, and helps to make the transition to the following school year a much smoother and positive one.”
