General Science: The Case of the Stolen Handouts

There were no two ways about it. I took her call 'cause I needed the money. The case was dirtier than a first grader's backpack and twice as heavy. The broad that hired me told me a couple a thugs stole some paper, and I ain't talking about the kind with dollar signs. Some handouts on "Why does salt taste so darn good?" Only clues I had were four sets of prints and a pile of white powder.

Called in a favor with a buddy of mine downtown and he ran the prints and came up with a list of suspects with records so clean you could eat off of them. Two teachers: Tammy Lefcourt and Devra Lehman, Asaf, the owner of the local toy store, and the damsel in distress herself, Rebecca Perlin. Each one had his own peculiar attraction to a specific white powder. Tammy and her baking powder; Devra, corn starch; Asaf, sugar; and Rebecca, salt.

I let the boys in the lab take a crack at it. They tested the powder with more chemicals than you'd find in a package of Osem soup nuts. Then they looked at it under the microscope and checked if it could conduct electricity. They compared the results to some similar cases they had a while back, and the answer was clear as day.

That science teacher must have thought I was some chump – turned out she was right. It was her and that other broad, the English teacher. One was in it for the thrill the other for the spelling mistakes. Me, I had bigger fish to fry.

General Science: Observations of different white powders

This week we continued our exploration of physical and chemical properties by investigating 4 different white powders: sugar, salt, potato starch, and baking soda. The physical properties we investigated included: how each one looks under the microscope and how each one feels. As for chemical properties, we combined the powders with with vinegar and iodine and recorded the results. Finally we looked at whether any of the powders conduct electricity when dissolved in water.

The kids now have a comprehensive data sheet on these substances and their physical and chemical properties. If by chance, they should come into contact with some unknown white powder, making an identification should be a piece of cake!

One never knows when these skills and/or data might come in handy...

General Science: The Case of the Stolen Handouts

There were no two ways about it. I took her call 'cause I needed the money. That case was dirtier than a first grader's back backpack and twice as heavy. The broad that hired me told me a couple a thugs stole some paper, and I ain't talking about the kind with dollar signs. Some handouts on "Why does salt taste so darn good?" Only clues I had were four sets of prints and a pile of white powder.

Called in a favor with a buddy of mine downtown and he ran the prints and came up with a list of suspects with records so clean you could eat off of them. Two teachers: Tammy Lefcourt and Devra Lehman, Asaf, the owner of the local toy store, and the damsel in distress herself, Rebecca Perlin. Each one had his own peculiar attraction to a specific white powder. Tammy and her baking powder; Devra, corn starch; Asaf, sugar; and Rebecca, salt.

I let the boys in the lab take a crack at it. They tested the powder with more chemicals than you'd find in a package of Osem soup nuts. Then they looked at it under the microscope and checked if it could conduct electricity. They compared the results to some similar cases they had a while back, and the answer was clear as day.

That science teacher must have thought I was some chump – turned out she was right. It was her and that other broad, the English teacher. One was in it for the thrill the other for the spelling mistakes. Me, I had bigger fish to fry.