This past Tuesday, the school turned its clocks forward seven hours, not because of some obscure Daylight Savings Time rule, but so that the entire school would be on Israel time. The first ever Hebrew Day organized by the CIA, The Committee for Israel Action, also featured an Israeli breakfast, a selection of Israeli snacks to purchase throughout the day, Israeli music over the loudspeakers and Judaic classes taught in Hebrew.

The CIA is a committee led by Steven Marin ('06), Ziyona Rantz ('06), Amy Milin ('06) and myself. It is made up of devoted students who aim to instill an awareness of current events in Israel and a love for Israel in their peers. This week's Hebrew Day was a success, infusing the day with Israeli culture and fulfilling CIA's mission.

In addition to Hebrew Day, CIA runs a number of other projects throughout the year. This Israel awareness committee also presents the Israel updates on a weekly basis, arranges Israel related speakers to come to the school and runs an updated ticker in the school hallway providing the latest news about Israel. The CIA board is full of interesting facts and stimulating pictures of Israel.

CIA also supports social action to help our brethren in Israel. Students have been bringing in clothing to donate to the thousands of refugees from Gush Katif, many of whom are still homeless. This week, students got together after school to pack and ship the clothing which will arrive for the families just in time for Chanukah.

As you can tell, CIA is very active in the school's educational and chesed opportunities. It encourages all students to take action and support Israel.

One can contact the CIA committee for questions and ideas by email at CIAction@gmail.com

It is always a challenge for teachers to develop instructional, thought provoking yet meaningful projects for their students. This past week, Mrs. Heidi Segal's Senior statistics class was given an assignment that gave them the opportunity to put their knowledge about surveys into practice with an exciting project.

The goal of the project was to give the students an idea of the time and effort that goes into creating a survey that is free of bias in representing any given population. The students were divided into groups, and each group had to come up with a survey question that was relevant to our school community. The group was required to sample an accurate representation of the student body and faculty and present their results to the rest of the class.

Each group had extremely creative and thoughtful presentations that clearly demonstrated their effort and skills. One group went so far as to hand out samples of breakfast cereals during their presentation of their survey titled, "Would you like more of a variety with the school breakfast?"

Other surveys that were taken included "What is your favorite lunch?", "How long does it take to get to school?", "Should there be testing in Judaic Studies?", "Should students be allowed to eat during class?" and "How many hours do you spend each night studying?"

The results varied from predictable to surprising. All in all the projects were an educational, informative and fun experience for all involved.

by Doron David ('09)