3 Ch3-Stop, Drop, and Roll

Chapter 3 Stop, Drop, and Roll Andrea was so obnoxious with her dictionary. Every five minutes she looked up another word so she could show how smart she is. But I got her. When she went to the bathroom during cleanup time, I snuck over to her desk and opened the

dictionary. I flipped through the pages until I found the word "stupid." Then I drew a picture of Andrea and a line point- ing to the word. It was great. You should have been there. I closed the dictionary just before Andrea came back from the bathroom. Nah-nah-nah boo-boo on her! I couldn't wait for her to find the picture. Miss Daisy told us to line up for sci- ence. We walked a million hundred miles to the science room. Mr. Docker wasn't there yet, but then he rolled in on that lawn mower thing. He was eating potato chips. Mr. Docker sure loves potatoes. "Sorry I'm late," he said. "I was reading

a book about helium, and I just couldn't put it down." And then he did that cack- ling demented laugh, so we had to laugh so he wouldn't give us extra homework. Mr. Docker told us that he is eighty years old and he has seen a lot of science in his life. When he was a kid, they didn't have important stuff like microwave popcorn or Velcro or sneakers that light up when you walk. "Wow!" I said. "Do you remember when they discovered fire? Were you there when they invented the wheel?" "I'm not quite that old," Mr. Docker said. "But when I was your age, they didn't have video games."

"No video games?" I asked. "How did you survive?" "I did experiments!" he said. "Let's do an experiment right now. What do you think would happen if we combined water with the chemicals, citric acid and sodium bicarbonate?" "Beats me," Michael said. "Let's do the experiment to find out!" said Mr. Docker. He took one of those tiny little plastic cans they use to hold camera film and put hot water in it. He dropped in a piece of Alka-Seltzer, which is this medicine my dad takes when he has a tummy ache. Then he snapped the top on the film can

and put it upside down on the floor. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Then the film can suddenly shot up into the air and bounced off the ceiling. "The chemical reaction gives off carbon dioxide gas," said Mr. Docker. "The can has nowhere to go, so it blasts off!" Wow! Even I had to admit that was cool. Mr. Docker told us that scientists use something called the scientific method.

"First think of a question or problem," he said. "Then try to guess what the answer is. After that do an experiment. Then look at the results and form a conclusion. That's the scientific method." Mr. Docker asked if anyone had any questions, and Andrea (of course) stuck her hand in the air. "I have a why question," Andrea said. "Why is the sky blue?" What a brownnoser. Everybody knows why the sky is blue. It's because air is blue. "The sky is blue because of Roy G. Biv," Mr. Docker said "Roy G. Biv?" I said. "Who's that?"