10 BIP GATHERING

"Remember to breathe!" Mom joked as Sassafras and I hurried through our breakfasts. I took one last gulp of water and stood up. "Ready!" Sassafras came over still chewing a mouthful of cat food, and I gathered up all my supplies. Mom tapped my science journal. "I'll be sure the materials are set up in the barn for you when you get back." "Thank you, Mom!" We ran out the back door… and nearly

crashed into a yawning Pip. I skidded to a stop. "Good news?" I held my breath. Pip stretched and then grinned. "My friends found four other healthy roses." "Yes!" I pumped my fist. "That should be perfect." Once we arrived, I used my scissors to clip one leaf from each healthy rose. Pip rubbed his eyes. "I thought you were doing three experiments—why are you clipping four leaves?"

"I'm getting one leaf for each experiment," I replied, "and the fourth leaf will be in a container by itself, so I'll have an idea how quickly bips usually multiply. That way I can compare it to my experiments to make sure they're creating more bips than if I'd done nothing at all." "Ohhhh, that makes sense," Pip said. Once we had the leaves, we rushed back to the barn. Mom had set up everything for me, so I was ready to go! One small table had a water bottle and napkins for my water experiment. Another table was scootched over to the wall— Mom had set up a heating pad next to a big glass container. On the last table, a large container sat under two grow lights that we used each year to

get our garden sprouts ready. They even had timers on them! I was so glad, because the sunlight experiment would've been hard to do without them. "Thank you, Mom! This is all so perfect," I said, and then dove right into setting up my experiments by following the procedures I'd written out in my science journal. Next, I got out my magnifying glass and started counting bips. I recorded the numbers in the different data charts in my journal. Each leaf had a different number, but they all had around 200 bips on them. Once all the experiments were set up, I looked at the clock. 8:00 a.m. Not bad! I set a two-hour timer, and Pip and Sassafras and I went to the garden to explore and play until it was time to record my first results.