10 Something’s Really Up

CHAPTER TEN Something's Really Up Electrochemistry (noun). A branch of chemistry dealing with metals. An electrochemist figured out how to make the coating on your sunglasses and the microchip in your computer. THE NEXT MORNING, Tuesday, I was skipping down the hall to class. Because last night, I had figured out my Rube Goldberg machine! It was going to be so much fun to make. There was going to be stuff like a ramp, a pebble, dominoes, and Birdie's strawberry, of course! Behind me, Elijah hurried to catch up. "Wow. Kate," he called out. "You're in a rush." "Yup!" I whirled around to wait for him. Then I explained to Elijah how I was going to put lemon batteries and the calculator into a Rube Goldberg machine. "I thought about it all last night. I'm going to use a few lemons to power a little fan, which is chemistry and engineering. Then blow a pebble down a ramp, which would be earth science and geology. The pebble will knock into dominoes, which is physics. And the dominoes will push the strawberry—which is botany, you know, the study

of plants—off a ledge into a cup of water. The water will overflow, wetting a piece of tissue paper that's underneath it. Through capillary action (and more chemistry!), the spilled water will creep up the tissue paper that has been pulled tightly over a small vertical plastic arm. The water will force the tissue paper to break, and then the little plastic arm will pop up and push a button to turn on the vertically standing calculator, which will also be powered by lemons!" "So cool!" Elijah gushed. "It's kind of like a game we have at home—Mousetrap." "That's just what Birdie said!" I had called her about the machine idea last night. "I just love that I'm getting so many branches of science into my

demo. And I can explain all of them to Dr. Caroline. It's like I'm doing six projects in one!" As I stood next to the water fountain, Rory slunk by and gave me a very strange look. His eyebrows scrunched weirdly, as if I had my shirt on inside out or something. "What's with him?" Elijah shrugged. "No clue." "Well, I know what's up with me. I've got everything I need for my machine, including lemons, a ramp, dominoes, a cup, a wax strawberry, tissue paper, Ms. Daly's calculator, and a plastic arm." I twirled my grocery bag full of supplies. Then I whispered, "This time, I'm putting everything in the very back of my cubby in our classroom. That way nothing can fall out. And it would be harder for someone to grab." "Do you think someone actually took the lemons yesterday? I mean, sure, if you wanted to make lemonade. But you'd need sugar, water, and a pitcher. What kid would have all of that?" "Memito," I blurted. "Oh, c'mon. Do you really think he would've done that?" I thought about it. He loved anything to do with cooking and recipes. But I didn't think he would take my lemons. "Nah." I shook my head. "I

don't think so." I looked both ways down the mostly empty hallway. We had driven in early with Mom. "I want to put the stuff back in the classroom without anybody seeing." Elijah made a face. "So, I'm not anybody?" "You're definitely somebody. You're one of my best friends. That's why you don't count as a suspect." "Well, that's an acceptable answer," he said, and looked pleased. He followed me into the classroom, where our teacher, Mrs. Eberlin, was stapling worksheets. "You two are in bright and early." "Yes," I said. "Mom had an early meeting and we came with her. Plus, I wanted to put some of the materials for my STEM Night project away. To keep them safe." "Good idea. How's the project going?" asked Mrs. Eberlin. "Great," I said. And it was true. I was going in a different direction. But it felt so right. Mrs. Eberlin neatened her stack. "How about you, Elijah?" "Good." He pulled his drumsticks out of his backpack. "Getting graded to drum. Can't complain."

"It's always better to do what's in your heart," Mrs. Eberlin said with a smile. Luckily for me, I loved science—all of it. And I loved that even with the Rube Goldberg machine, I was still doing some chemistry. Learning about how electrons move through metals was a branch of chemistry called electrochemistry. After gently stuffing all of my supplies, including the strawberry, in the back of my cubby, I turned to Elijah. "I'm going to meet up with Birdie by the basketball court. Want to come?" "Sure," said Elijah. "See you soon," said Mrs. Eberlin. All morning, all I could think about was my project. School dragged except for when we got to language arts. That was because we were going to write haiku poems about our STEM project. "And you get to write them with these," said Mrs. Eberlin, shaking a cardboard box mailer. "My sister Lucia mailed me pens from Buenos Aires." "Yay!" cried Birdie. Mrs. Eberlin held up different kinds and different colors. "My sister owns an art supply store. And these are some extra mismatched ones that she had lying around. They're a present for doing such good work so far on your language arts

projects. Just reach on in there and pick which pen you'd like." Birdie picked a cyan blue one. I picked a fuchsia pink one. Then we used the pens to write haiku about our science projects. A haiku is a type of Japanese poetry that I love because it's so organized. The first line has five syllables, the second line seven, and the last line has five. "You know why I like haiku?" said Elijah. "Because they're short poems." "Don't you like poetry?" asked Phoenix. "I do, but I like it even better when it's short," he said. "It definitely makes it faster to write," I added as I finished my own poem. Rube Goldberg Machine By Kate Crawford This cool machine is A chain reaction that shows Six types of science