The weeks are moving quickly and many things are happening. There is a middle school luau Friday the 27th at school. The cost is $5.00 for dinner and we hope that your student is planning to attend!

Thanks to Mrs. Padmabandu and Stratagene, I was able to pick up some science supplies and equipment that that were part of a lab clean up. If you, or someone you know, works at a biotech or science industry that might be willing to donate to Cornerstone's Science program, please let me know. I can use glass slides (especially the ones with wells), 25 cm Corning culture flasks, hot plate stirrers, and a variety of other lab equipment. Please contact me if you have any questions.

6th Grade Earth Science
The test has been postponed to this Tuesday. From time to time, I will need to adjust the test schedule to accomodate the speed at which we cover the material. Many times, your students will ask wonderful questions that require time to explain. I love answering questions that apply to the subject and encourage their curiosity and exploration. Our pendulum lab was a success and there will be a lab on parallax this week. Lab write-ups should be done for each. After we finish with some of the early history of astronomy, we will move on to chapter two and the tools and methods of astronomical observation. I hope your student is enjoying the learning process and deepening their understanding of scinece and the universe.

6th Grade Bible
It has been especially exciting to work with your child in Bible. We have addressed many topics through scripture including, what is redemption? How do we worship God? What does it mean to be blessed? Besides spiritual death, as Adam and Eve sinned, what else happened? Do you know the answers to these questions? If you don't, talk with your child. I hope they do now, most of them did not before.

7th Grade Science
There will be a test on chapter 2 Friday. Two other simultaneus projects will be happening at the same time. One will be an insect collection. I will be instructing them on the process and they have a handout that details the methodology. This project is due October 4th. The second project will be a research paper based on taxonomic nomenclature. There is a detailed handout of the paper and the way it should be accomplished. This will be a joint process with Mrs. Goosman and I. There will need to be some internet research, but most of it can be accomplished with several good books. There will be some class time to get it started but some work will have to be done at home as home work. Please make sure you and your student read and understand the handouts. Any questions can be sent to me via e-mail.

8th Grade Science
There will be a test on chapter 2 Tuesday. After that we move on to heat and the principles of thermodynamics in chapter 16. We are moving to this section of the book because the radio telescope students will be using collects radio waves and not visual light waves. Scientifically speaking, the waves outside of the visual are much more interesting and provide much more information to us. Scientists can actually measure the temperature of the upper cloud layers of Jupiter here on earth from thermal radiation reaching to us all the way from the planet! Radio astronomy can be very fascinating if you understand the process.

It was great to see many familiar faces and meet many new faces at the open house on Friday. I hope that the evening was informative, informational and inspirational. God has put a wondeful team of middle school teachers together this year and together, we (including you the parents) will work to make this an adventurous, academic and spiritual endeavor. With time so short, I was unable to share all important information with you, so please look at the following for your student's class for a few important updates.

6th Grade Earth Science
Keep your eyes peeled for many exciting things happening in the next few months. I am awaiting news of a new version of software for operating DSS 12 a 34 meter radio antenna that will allow us to use these tools to collect valuable electromagnetic waves in a program that will link our student's data to those of other radio astronomers in the world and the Hubble Space telescope. This new software will allow us to look at Uranus and we will be one of the first schools in the nation to do so. This is all linked to a program that I had a chance to assist in development during the last summer at JPL (Jet Propultion Laboratory).

Speaking of JPL, I would also like to take our students on a tour of some of the many wonderful facilities at JPL in La Canada (Pasadena) CA. In order to do so, I would need drivers willing to take a day and help us transport students up and back to JPL. If you would be interested in supporting such a trip, please e-mail me with your comments. There are some amazing things happening there right now and over the next few months.

Your student should be reading chapter 1 and looking ahead to a test on Friday. We are examining the basics of astronomy and the earth's movement. Two labs this week will help them understand how scientists know the earth is both rotating and revolving as it moves through space.

7th Grade Life Science
There will be a meeting for the upcoming Catalina Island trip the week of February 17th through the 21st. The meeting will be Friday the 20th of this month. It will provide information about the cost, and chapperone information as well. It is my hope that you can plan on attending as the time is short to get things going. I would also like to talk about some other field trips planned for the year as well
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Life Science students will be looking at Chapter 1 and examining the process of scientific thinking and methods utilized to examine the world around us. They should be reading and reviewing notes. A lab examining the process of scientific thinking will occur this week and your student should be preparing for a test on Thursday.

8th Grade Physical Science
Keep your eyes peeled for many exciting things happening in the next few months. I am awaiting news of a new version of software for operating DSS 12 a 34 meter radio antenna that will allow us to use these tools to collect valuable electromagnetic waves in a program that will link our student's data to those of other radio astronomers in the world and the Hubble Space telescope. This new software will allow us to look at Uranus and we will be one of the first schools in the nation to do so. This is all linked to a program that I had a chance to assist in development during the last summer at JPL (Jet Propultion Laboratory).

Speaking of JPL, I would also like to take our students on a tour of some of the many wonderful facilities at JPL in La Canada (Pasadena) CA. In order to do so, I would need drivers willing to take a day and help us transport students up and back to JPL. If you would be interested in supporting such a trip, please e-mail me with your comments. There are some amazing things happening there right now and over the next few months.

Students should be reading chapter 1 and there will be a quiz Monday. There will be a lab on the scientific method and we will be investigating understanding using this method. Next will be the exploration of theories vs. laws in chapter 2 with a test next week Tuesday. Af ter these exploratory chapters, we will begin learning about electromagnetic waves.