The Case of the Gasping Garbage (5 page)

Contents

Your Own Lab

Method to the Madness

Mr. Talberg’s Famous Bread Recipe
(And one not-so-famous bread recipe)

Send a Secret Message

Emergency! Naturalists Needed!
Help Save the Frogs!

Hang on to Your Hats!

A Most Mysterious Case

D
o you want to perform experiments just like Drake Doyle and Nell Fossey? Create your own laboratory—it’s easy!

1. Start by collecting beakers and flasks. Clear glass bottles and jars work great. Wash thoroughly; remove old labels by soaking them in warm, soapy water. Anytime an experiment calls for a beaker, use a jar. For flasks, use bottles.

2. Find a lab coat. Lab coats protect your clothes and skin from chemicals and other messy stuff. (Plus, they’re spiffy.) Large, white, button-down shirts with the sleeves rolled up work well. If you can’t locate any around your house (ask first!), you can certainly find an inexpensive one at a secondhand clothing store. Using a permanent marker, write your name on your lab coat so you’ll always know which one is yours.

3. Keep a lab notebook. Any notebook will do. Lab notebooks are important because they tell you what you’ve done. (Imagine a scientist who wonders how he did whatchamacallit experiment last year. Instead of guessing, he looks it up in his lab notebook! Ta-da! Complete with coffee stains!)

A good lab notebook contains

1)
experiment title

2)
method (what you plan to do)

3)
hypothesis (what you think will happen)

4)
procedure (what you did)

5)
observations (what you saw)

6)
results (what actually happened)

I
n the story “Monster Mission,” Drake and Nell used the
scientific method
. Based on their observations of the garbage can, they developed a
hypothesis
. A hypothesis is a statement that explains what you think is really happening. In other words, a hypothesis is an educated guess. Drake’s hypothesis might have sounded something like this:

But a scientist doesn’t stop with a hypothesis. A hypothesis may or may not be correct. The only way for a scientist to find out is to perform experiments to test the hypothesis, just as Drake and Nell did. The steps taken to test a hypothesis are known as a
procedure
. These are the instructions you’ll follow as you perform experiments and activities similar to Drake and Nell’s. Put on your lab coat, wash your hands, and stick a pencil behind your ear, because here we go!

Good Science Tip

Read through the instructions and set out all needed materials before beginning the experiment. Use only clean equipment. Record each step of the experiment’s procedure in your lab notebook.

(And one not-so-famous bread recipe)

T
hat’s right! Here’s Mr. Talberg’s recipe, famous all over Mossy Lake; soon to be famous in your town, too. (
CAUTION:
This is a highly delicious activity, and it takes about two hours.)

(
TOP-SECRET
: This is also a top-secret operation, but it’s so cleverly disguised that your poor, unsuspecting family
won’t even know it.
)

MATERIALS

Note
: Check the expiration date on the yeast. It is a living (yikes! it’s
alive!
) plant and is able to survive for one year in a dried (dehydrated) state. Yeast is found in nature, even in the air we breathe! Yeast is activated by warmth and moisture, much as seeds are activated when planted and watered. If it’s past the expiration date, the yeast will not activate. Also, make certain it’s
quick-rising
yeast. If it is, it should say so on the label.

PROCEDURE

1.
Turn on your oven light and close the oven door. This will create a warm environment for the yeast to grow. (Oven should be
OFF.
Light should be
ON
.)

2.
Wash your hands. (All good scientists wash their hands.)

3.
Into
each
bowl, measure 1½ cups flour, 1 table-spoon sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon butter or margarine.

4.
Add ½ teaspoon yeast to
one
of the bowls containing the flour mixture. Label the bowl
YEAST.
Mix well.

5.
Add ½ cup warm water into
each
bowl. Stir until a good dough forms. Pick up each dough ball with your hands (one at a time) and squeeze it for several minutes, working it back and forth. (Squoosh, moosh, squeeze, and tease.) If it’s too gooey, add a little more flour. Let each dough ball sit for 10 minutes.

6.
After 10 minutes, form each dough ball into a loaf shape and put into a greased miniature bread pan. Label the bread pan containing the yeast,
YEAST.
(Like, duh.)

7.
Set both loaves in your oven and cover them with a dish towel. Close the door. (Your oven should be
OFF,
but the oven light should be
ON
.) Set the timer for one hour.

8.
Relax. (
SOME IDEAS FOR RELAXING:
Lie in a hammock, pester your mother, call your best friend, play solitaire, jog in place, study Einstein’s theory of relativity.)

9.
Once the timer goes off, remove dish towel from the loaves. Now turn on oven and bake loaves at 350°F for 40–45 minutes, or until golden brown. (The loaf without the yeast may be pale, hard, and ugly, but that’s the way it goes.)

10.
Serve your unsuspecting family
both
loaves of bread. Pretend you don’t notice the difference. Later, write down their reactions in your lab notebook and wdraw your conclusions regarding yeast. (
EXAMPLES OF REACTIONS:
Amazing! Delicious! Mouthwatering! Three cheers for the cook! OR: Disgusting! Ow, I broke my tooth! Who made this stuff anyway?)

Disclaimer

Not responsible for broken teeth or hard, lumpy cases of indigestion. You didn’t hear it from us.