9 What’s the Matter

CHAPTER NINE What's the Matter? Law of Conservation of Matter (noun). A law that tells us that an amount of matter stays the same even when it changes form. Matter is basically anything with mass that takes up space. That means if you took a bite of your piece of pizza and offered it to your friend, in some sense the amount of matter that made up the slice stays the same. Only now some of that matter is inside your tummy and some of it is in your bestie's! "BEFORE WE START our math lesson, I want to collect field trip permission slips," said Mrs. Eberlin on Friday, January 21. It was a week before we were going to the Shedd. Some kids opened up their notebooks, while others had to race to their backpacks to get them. Mine was in an envelope that Mom had given me. "Thanks so much," said Mrs. Eberlin as she set down her mug of coffee. It was so warm I could practically see the steam. And boy, did the air smell good. It made me think of the law of conservation, which states that even if a little bit of the coffee

changed from a liquid to gas, the amount of particles didn't change. It's just that some of the water in the coffee had evaporated. "Remember that the deadline to turn in your signed permission forms is Monday," said Mrs. Eberlin as she went down the aisle collecting permission slips. "Since the entry fee is in the school budget, that part is covered. But if you want anything extra from the gift shop, that will be up to you." I thought about my forty dollars in my atom bank. Yeah, luckily, I had that part covered. "Also, I wanted to check on chaperones," continued Mrs. Eberlin. "I reached out to your parents again last night via email, and I know a bunch of your parents were checking their schedules, which is good. As a reminder, we'll need to have our definite list of chaperones set before we go." She didn't add the or else. But she didn't need to. Everyone knew that if we didn't find the chaperones really soon, our field trip next Friday could be canceled. But the animal presentation wouldn't. I had been working on my sea lion presentation all week. Honestly, the research was going a little slowly

since I had so much to learn. Unlike with penguins, especially rockhoppers, where I knew facts just off the top of my head. For example, I know that rockhoppers are awesome rock climbers because they have sharp claws that help to grip the boulders. So far, I had gotten the information for the habitat and behavior sections for the sea lion as well as the description. I just needed to learn more about their diet and present status. I had no idea what the present status of sea lions was. Once I solved that mystery, I needed to complete my super-duper facts section, which hopefully would be from actual research at the aquarium, but right now I wasn't so sure. "Hey, I've got good news," called out Elijah. "My mom can come." "What? Really?" I said. Since Elijah lives next door to me, I usually hear everything firsthand. "When did that happen?" "She told me last night," said Elijah. "She convinced one of the other doctors to cover her shift at the hospital. And another one for the clinic." "That's wonderful news," said Mrs. Eberlin. "Elijah's mom is a pediatrician. That means we'll have first aid more than covered. Now we just need two more chaperones." She crossed her fingers. Usually, just like a proton, I'm positive.

But right now, I was more like an electron. Negative and upset that I couldn't do a penguin presentation. "At least the weather report is good for the day of our trip," said Mrs. Eberlin. "Cold temps but no snow. For now. It's a long-term forecast and a week away, so anything can happen between now and then. Also, I wanted to remind you all that we're going to leave for the field trip first thing in the morning. So nobody can be late. And we definitely don't want to be late since we've signed up for the eleven o'clock aquarium show, and we don't want to miss that. They change up the animals in the show. But I have heard that ours will be penguins and belugas." I started to clap. Penguins! That was just awesome. That meant I'd actually be able to get really close to them. The field trip was just a week away, but I already knew that it would be one long week.