Maze Daze and a Desperate Plea

Everyone got to school early Friday morning so they’d have time to set up their experiments and presentations.

After Mrs. Lockwood took attendance, the whole class headed outside. Billy Evans was giving his presentation first, and they’d need plenty of fresh air.

“Stink bombs don’t smell as bad outside,” Billy told the class. He looked a little upset with that fact. “But they wouldn’t let me stink up the school! So if you want a good whiff, you’ll have to get closer.”

Everyone laughed, and a few of the braver students took a couple cautious steps closer to where Billy stood.

Billy held up what looked like a normal egg. “My question was whether or not I could make a stink bomb out of an egg,” he explained to the class.

“What did you come up with for the second step of the experiment?” Mrs. Lockwood asked, raising her voice. She hadn’t stepped closer. “What was already known?”

“Well, I knew that if you leave eggs out on the counter they go bad,” Billy said. “So I thought I’d really take things up a notch. For the experiment step, I poked a hole in this egg, put foil around it, and let it sit in the sun for a few days.”

Billy cracked the egg open, and a horrible smell immediately filled the air. The students nearby gagged, covered their noses, and jumped back.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Mia whispered to Kyle.

Kyle held his nose and nodded.

“Cool!” Billy exclaimed. “It stinks because these little germ things —”

“Bacteria,” the teacher said.

“Right,” Billy said. “Bacteria got into the egg and turned the insides into super-gross, stinky stuff.”

“Hydrogen sulfide,” Mrs. Lockwood told him.

“And that,” Billy concluded, “is why rotten eggs smell so bad! So my theory was right. I can turn an egg into a stink bomb!”

Mrs. Lockwood grinned. “That’s very scientific, Billy.”

“You can make stuff that smells even worse,” Billy said. “But my dad wouldn’t let me.”

“Good!” Mia muttered.

The class headed back inside, and several more students gave their presentations after Billy. Then it was Kyle’s turn. As he made his way to the front of the room, Kyle saw Ryan grin and flash him a thumbs up. He’d given Kyle permission to show the class his less-than-impressive batting skills.

“I did my experiment on baseball,” Kyle explained. He pulled up the video Mia had taken on the classroom computer and pressed play. “I wanted to see if batters could hit better with a wooden bat or a metal bat.”

Everyone was impressed with Connor’s batting abilities, and they thought Rex was amazing. They cheered when Billy hit a line drive, and laughed at Mia’s footage of Ryan trying to hit the ball.

Ryan missed again and again. One time, he swung so hard that the bat flew out of his hands. Another time, he ducked so the ball wouldn’t hit him.

When Ryan finally did manage to hit one, the ball sailed backward into the bleachers. Rex almost knocked him down chasing after it!

“So I learned that an aluminum bat can make most batters hit farther,” Kyle said with a laugh, “but it can’t help a bad batter hit the ball!”

“But Ryan gets an A for trying,” Mrs. Lockwood said.

Everyone cheered. Ryan stood up and took a bow.

A few other students did their presentations. When Mia’s name was called, she turned to Kyle. “My project is a disaster,” she whispered. “What am I going to do?”

“Just do your best,” Kyle said.

Mia took a deep breath and walked over to the table that held her experiment. There were five small plastic cups filled with soil sitting on top, but only one of them had anything growing in it.

“I’m sorry to report that most of my bean seeds flunked their growing experiment,” Mia said.

The rest of the class laughed, and Kyle smiled at Mia.

“I put seeds in plastic cups and watered them with different liquids. Milk, vinegar, iced tea, soda, and water,” Mia explained. “I found out that bean seeds hate vinegar, club soda, and iced tea!” She made a face. “But I can’t stand those drinks either.”

The other students laughed in agreement.

“One of the seeds drank milk like a good little bean baby, but then it got a fungus and died,” Mia continued.

She moved over to the only plastic cup with a sprout growing in it — her one success. “But the one I grew in water looks great!” she said. “So I learned two things: don’t mess with Mother Nature, and I do not have a green thumb!”

Everyone clapped when she sat down.

“Ryan, you’re up,” the teacher announced.

Ryan walked over to the table that held his mice. He had everyone’s complete attention.

“My experiment was to see if music made mice smarter and faster,” Ryan said. “I used a maze and two different types of music, classical and heavy metal, to do my test. My theory was that the rock music would make the mice faster, and classical would make them slower.”

“First, I trained the mice to run the maze without music,” Ryan continued. “That way I could figure out how well they ran it on their own. Then I played classical music for one mouse, heavy metal for another, and no music for the last mouse.”

Ryan put Mouse into the maze to show everyone how his experiment had turned out. Mouse made his way through the maze at a steady pace, not running into any walls along the way.

Next, Ryan held up a chart he’d made that showed the times for the three different mice. “I timed all the mice with no music to start,” he explained, “and then timed them again with the music. Mouse’s time is three seconds better than the day he started. Practice makes perfect!”

Ryan let Mouse eat the peanut-butter bread as a reward. He set Classical in the maze next and turned on the music. Classical ran through so fast everyone gasped.

“I kind of thought he might fall asleep after listening to classical music for three days,” Ryan said with a laugh. “I know I would! But I was wrong. Classical runs the maze eight seconds faster with the music than Mouse does without it.”

“That’s pretty amazing,” Mrs. Lockwood said.

“So is this!” Ryan said. He put the last mouse, Heavy Metal, into the maze and turned on the music.

The poor little mouse had a horrible time getting through the maze. He made wrong turns and bumped into more walls than he had on the first day. He seemed completely lost!

“Whenever I play the music, Heavy Metal can’t remember where to go.” Ryan said. “I thought it would make him faster, but it just makes him confused! It turns out my theory was backwards — classical music makes mice smarter, not rock music like I’d expected.”

“I can sympathize,” Emma said with a laugh. “All that banging would make it hard for me to think, too!”

“Hey, I’m not a mouse,” Connor said. “Leave rock music alone.”

After lunch, Mrs. Lockwood announced the winners of the science fair. “You all did a great job,” she said. “Our third-place ribbon goes to Billy and his stink-bomb experiment.”

Billy stepped up and claimed his yellow third-place ribbon.

“Second place goes to Kyle for his baseball-bat experiment,” the teacher continued. “And Ryan’s mouse experiment is our first-place winner!”

“Congratulations!” Mia called as Ryan stepped forward to collect his first-place ribbon. “First place and you have three new pets now!”

Ryan shook his head. “Actually, I don’t,” he said to the class. “I can’t keep them as pets. We already have a cat, and my sister freaked out after one got loose in her room, so my mom won’t let me. I thought she’d change her mind, but she didn’t. The mice have to go.”