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Christine Rains

Christine Rains, co-owner and instructor of Quest in Science, is an experienced teacher who brings science to life for her students and creates a fun classroom atmosphere by promoting questions and discussion. Christine earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Scripps College in Claremont, CA and a master’s degree in Geophysics from California State University, Northridge. She also has a bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from CSUN. She has been teaching elementary through college for many years, and currently teaches physics and astronomy at several local community colleges. She also spent several years working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, on the REASON instrument on the Europa Clipper spacecraft that is heading to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. She has been working with Quest in Science since the early 2000’s teaching hands-on science to elementary school children throughout Los Angeles and became co-owner in 2011. In 2018, she welcomed her good friend and colleague Debbie Walker onto the Quest team as co-owner. At Quest in Science, we are passionate about providing quality science education to young learners. Quest in Science lessons encourage students to observe, measure, collect and analyze data, make hypotheses, and draw conclusions. Hands-on science to us means teaching based on activities that engage a student’s mind and hands to make science fun, interesting, exciting, and challenging. Christine Rains is excited to bring Quest in Science to the students and families of HuckleBerry Center for Creative Studies and looks forward to a great year!

Life Science with Labs

Prerequisites: Basic grade school math is recommended.  Students should be able to write at least a 5-paragraph essay and read at a 7th grade level.



Life science is the study of living things, from the simplest cell to the complex systems that sustain life on Earth.  This complete course is designed to fit the middle school curriculum (7th grade life science standards NGSS MS-LS1-1-8) and will span three quarters.


In this course, we will investigate life on Earth in all its forms.  Students will look at how life functions, from the microscopic, to the macroscopic, to the interconnected systems that Earth supports.  Students will learn to identify biotic and abiotic factors in an environment and assess the impacts of each on an environment or web of life.  Students will record observations about life and biomes around them, including observations made in their daily lives and those made under a microscope.  Students will trace how energy travels through an ecosystem, from photosynthesis, to consumption, and beyond.  Students will model population growth and understand the environmental and evolutionary factors that can affect populations.  Students will be introduced to specialized cells, learning to map body systems from the cell, to the organ, to the system as a whole.  Each day, our busy scientists will perform experiments and make observations.  They will maintain a record of our adventures through fun worksheets and develop their passion for the study of science.  Some topics studied this year will be:

  • Matter and energy in organisms and ecosystems

  • Relationships in ecosystems

  • Natural selection and evolution

  • Inheritance and selected traits

  • Structure and function of cells

  • Human body systems

  • Cell identification with microscopes

  • Specific scientific case studies of real-world biology and ecology

All workbooks and lab materials will be provided.  Life Science is fascinating, lively, and foundational to understanding healthy bodies and a healthy world.

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