For St. Joe Students, School’s Back In

A new summer school activity had fifth- through eighth-graders swabbing Lafayette High School toilets, sink pipes and water fountains.

The St. Joseph School District’s summer school began Monday, and the swabbing was part of a new program called Summer Institute, where elementary and middle school students can attend the high schools for special projects during the monthlong summer school.

Each high school looked for a fun program that could reverse the decline in fifth- through eighth-grade summer school enrollment.

Central High School’s institute students will put on a musical. A robotics institute is under way at Benton High School. Lafayette has a CSI – as in critical science investigation – institute.

Monday morning, incoming Noyes Elementary School sixth-grader Andrew O’Neal ran a cotton swab across a pipe below a Lafayette faculty sink and then smeared the findings in a petri dish.

The dish will go into an incubator, and later this week, Andrew will see the findings.

“Something gross is going to grow on this. There’s already mold growing on that,” Andrew said, pointing to a black, moist spot on the pipe.

Throughout the next four weeks, students in the institute will make yogurt, learn about microscopes and investigate a mock crime scene.

Charisse Giseburt, the district’s summer school coordinator, said the institutes have helped increase enrollment in the fifth through eighth grades.

Overall, about 80 percent of the district’s students are enrolled in summer school, which is in line with the past few years.

The district encourages all students to attend summer school. Administrators view it as a way for students to catch up, get ahead and just stay academically active for another month of the year.

“Three months is a long time to go without school. Summer school gives them one more month,” Giseburt said. “Summer school is a good way to keep their brains moving.”

Originally published by McClatchy Newspapers.

(c) 2008 Columbia Daily Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.