Science Fair at SWA

Last night was the Science Fair at our school. Every other year we have it in late winter or early spring. On the years that we don't have science fair, we have Heritage Day and emphasize history. Once again everything seemed to go well. Some like it more than others but I heard a lot of nice comments. I'm sure that even though it's alot of work for the kids and parents and teachers there is a sense of satisfaction when everything is said and done. This year, the kindergarten class used a farming theme--there were even some live chickens! The first and second grade class had a jungle theme. Third and fourth used a breakfast theme and each of them took a different breakfast food and researched it. That room was probably the most popular because of all the samples. Fifth and sixth grade had a variety of projects but at this level they were required to use the scientific method to approach a topic and make a hypothesis, etc. The same rules applied to the jr. high and high school students. Steve's classes were required to choose a topic within the discipline they were studying. The Physical Science kids had to choose something related to Physical Science and the Chemistry students had to choose a Chemistry topic. The General Science kids did coordinating projects on fireworks. They used black lights to make a neat display. I think I managed to get pics of every student's display but I'll just post the two that I was the most involved in and one pic from a group that I helped out with. Congratulations to everyone--students, parents, and teachers for a job well done!!

Happy Chinese New Year

On Monday, January 26th we celebrated Chinese New Year. After living in Taiwan for 8 years we have several fond memories of New Years spent with our Chinese family. We have tried to keep up the tradition of celebrating here. Most of the time that means going out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. This year we celebrated by helping Ron High Rock cook a Chinese dinner in the AWC cafeteria. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun but I had a lot of help. It was fun cooking when I had so many helpers and such a BIG stove to cook on. Steve, Stevie, and Abby came over after school and helped decorate tables and serve the food. We wanted more pictures but since we served the meal in courses, once we started there wasn't much time to take pictures. Below, you see the crab rangoons that were the first course and Ron and Debbie putting the finishing touches on the General Tso's Chicken.