Students of the Month: May

The Supernova teachers would like to congratulate the following Supernovas for earning student of the month honors for the month of May.

English: Anna S.
Social Studies: Tom S.
Science: Sarah J.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Supernova Field Trip 2010-2011

The Supernova team visited the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on Friday, May 27th. Below are some pictures from the field trip.

Enrichment: C-MITES Steppingstones Classes

SOURCE - Carnegie Mellon University C-MITES Steppingstones Page:

Our popular one-day classes for students in K-9th grades called "Steppingstones" will be offered on the Carnegie Mellon campus in late summer and early fall. The Steppingstones brochure is now online.

Classes include Simple Robot Machines, Crime Scene Investigations, WeDo Robotics, Egg Drop Physics, Engineering 101, Ancient Chinese Secrets, Creative Writing, Let's Go to France, and Chemistry and Analysis of Water.

Course descriptions and the online registration system are available at: Steppingstones website

The brochure is available here.

Black Holes: Interactive Website

Click on the link below to explore and learn about black holes.

Black Holes: Interactive Website

MLA Format Resource

The students of Mrs. Porter's English 8 and Advanced English 8 classes are writing career research papers. The students are encouraged to use the Purdue OWL website to assist them with using MLA format for the in-text citations. The students will be using NoodleBib to create their works cited pages. The papers are due at the end of class on Friday, May 20th. The students will also be holding a career fair in the school's library on Tuesday, May 24th and Wednesday, May 25th.

NASA Science - Astrophysics: Origin, Structure, & Evolution of Our Cosmos

NASA Science: Astrophysics - Focus Areas

Visit the link above to learn about:
1. The Big Bang Theory
2. Dark Energy
3. Dark Matter
4. Stars
5. Galaxies
6. Black Holes
7. Planets Around Other Stars

The Anne Frank Leaf Project

The Advanced English 8 students read the play, "The Diary of Anne Frank" and the novel, The Diary of a Young Girl. As a culminating activity, the students selected from six quotes from Anne's diary. The quotes were based on the themes of freedom, goodness, giving, courage, happiness, and humanity. Each student wrote an essay about the ways that he or she had been inspired by the life of Anne Frank to value that specific theme in his or her own life. The students also created a leaf based on one of the six themes. Each student wrote Anne's quote on one side of the leaf and his or her own original quote on the other side of the leaf. This project was based on the Anne Frank Tree Interactive Monument. Anne Frank often admired the chestnut tree in the courtyard behind the secret annex and wrote about the tree in her diary.

For more information, you can visit the Anne Frank Tree Interactive Monument. You can also leave your own quote or message on the virtual tree.

Abigail Self and Emily Uzar created the display in Mrs. Porter's classroom. Please stop by and check it out!

Students of the Month: April

The Supernova teachers would like to congratulate the following Supernovas for earning student of the month honors for the month of April.

English: Courtney P.
Science: Abigail S.
Social Studies: Sydney C.

Astronomy Think-Tac-Toe: 2010-2011 (UPDATED 5/17/11)

Mr. Wolf's 8th grade science classes are conducting a student choice activity in which they choose and complete at least TWO astronomy activities. The students can complete a third activity to earn bonus points. One activity will be due on each of the following due dates.

Due Date 1: May 17th
Due Date 2: May 24th
Due Date 3: May 31st (Optional Bonus Activity)

Note - The students will be able to work on the project in the computer lab on the following days: 5/13, 5/16, and 5/23.

Astronomy Websites


Astronomy Think-Tac-Toe (Printable PDF File)