With all eyes on Paris and the 2024 Olympics earlier this summer, it seemed fitting that on the final day of Summer Academy, elementary students competed in fun but challenging contests during the Minute-To-Win-It Olympics.

Students from all grade levels were immersed in learning over five weeks this summer at Watervliet Elementary School and Watervliet Jr.-Sr. High School. The district’s Summer Academy, Summer Travel Program, and Extended School Year Program provided approximately 300 students an opportunity to practice and strengthen the skills learned throughout the past school year and participate in fun enrichment activities, which included virtual and actual field trips.

In the Summer Travel Program, grades 7-8 students explored history with trips to the Saratoga Battlefield and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home in Hyde Park, NY. They also had a chance to feed sting rays and learn about the habits of a new resident – a three-month-old octopus – at the Via Aquarium in Rotterdam. Students visited with cows, horses and goats at nearby June Farm in Sand Lake, where they also learned to make pepperoni and cheese pizzas (a favorite activity expressed by many students!). They explored the Earth’s geology – 156 feet underground – during a trip to Howe Caverns in Schoharie County;  and the sky with a visit to the planetarium to study the constellations at miSci | Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady.

In addition, a dozen Watervliet junior high school students participated in the annual Summer STEM Camp coordinated by Capital Region BOCES in partnership with Regeneron. Read more about our students STEM Camp adventures