Tag Archives: science stories

The Mushroom Feast Behind-The-Scenes

We started school today!  September is here, and the School Year’s begun–it just feels like fall.  I’m seriously ready for flame-colored leaves, crisp Autumn mornings, and pumpkin English Muffins.  Just all of sudden I’m ready to let summer go.  It’s my first year of high-school, and I’m planning on making it a good one!

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Anyway, behind the scenes. . .

Continue reading The Mushroom Feast Behind-The-Scenes

Module 9 & 10 Story #6

THE LAST ONE!!!

Whatever will I do with myself now that I don’t have a story to post about? 🙂

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What is it?” asked Brian.

“It’s a Sand Dollar,” Dad explained.

“Why didn’t we find any earlier?” asked Mandy, disappointed. “I would have liked to see more. They’re pretty.”

Pretty?” asked Dad, looking down at hairy, black circle on his palm.

“Yes, very. Can we take it home?”

“No, we can’t take it home. We can’t take living creatures.”

“Oh, dear! That means I can’t take my kelp!”

“Um, kelp isn’t a living creature, Mandy-girl. You can take that home—you might be able to press it in our dictionary. And if we find a white Sand Dollar, we can take that too.”

“No, Daddy, kelp is alive. Katie told me it was.”

“Well, I suppose you could say plants are alive,” Dad said patiently. “They just don’t want us to take animals—plants are fine.”

“But they’re not plants either, Daddy.”

“I suppose Katie told you that?”

“Yes, she did. Kelp is not in Kingdom Plantae. It’s in Kingdom Protista. It’s algae, not Protozoa, though, so it doesn’t act like an animal. So. . . do you think they’ll let me keep it?”

“Yes, I think so. And, just between you and me, they’ll probably tell you you can take it home because they’ll think it’s a plant.”

The End

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So, what did you think?  I’d love to hear your thoughts! 🙂

Module 9 & 10 Story #5

Trying to do these more often!  The next part is the last one.

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I wish we hadn’t had to throw our carrot away,” Mandy said sadly, as Katie finished braiding her hair.

“Me too,” her big sister agreed, pulling a ponytail-holder onto the end of the braid. “But we did get to see its roots, and it was starting to rot. It was really just in time! I can’t believe we’re going home tomorrow. Now, are you ready to swim?”

“Mmm-hmm. How about you? I don’t want to swim without you.”

“I just have to ask Mama to do my hair. I wish I could braid it myself,” she added wistfully, tugging gently on her little sister’s braid.

“You do mine nicely.”

“Yes, but I’ve tried to do it on myself, and it turns out all wispy. It’s just hard when you can’t see. Ah well! I’ll master it someday. Now you go swim with the boys, while I get my braids. This is our last swim, you better get as much as you can, little fish.”

“Fish indeed! I’m a mermaid!” Katie sighed. More mermaids. “By the way, Katie, what kingdom are fish in?”

“Animalia.”

“But they’re not animals.”

“Well, technically they are—scientifically. Actually, scientists put humans in Animalia too.”

“But we’re not animals!”

“No, we’re most certainly not. But biologically we are closer to animals than to, say. . . kelp.”

“I should think so! Would mermaids be in Animalia too?”

“They don’t exist, sweetie.”

“I know, I know! But if they did—if?”

Hmm… interesting question. “Probably Animalia. Now you go back where you belong, little mermaid.”

Mandy bounced off, and Katie went to look for her mother.

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These last ones are a bit shorter.  Happy Sunday!

Module 9 & 10 Story #4

Yeah, no book review.  I’m sorry.  It just didn’t happen.  Oh, well.  I’ll pick up sometime.  I thought about just doing it today, but I decided I should do a story post instead.  And sorry that these have been so long in coming.  Schedules just don’t always work for me. 🙂

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Mandy pulled the ear-bud out of her right ear, and handed it to Brian. “You can have both.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled, without looking away from the laptop screen.

“Why watch a movie about trains?” asked Mandy, flopping down next to Katie on the motel couch. “I’d rather talk to you. Tell me more about kelp and cells!”

Katie finished her paragraph and slid the bookmark into her book. “What do you want to know?”

Continue reading Module 9 & 10 Story #4

Module 9 & 10 Story #3

Wow!  The posts have been quite few and far between this story!  That’s why I have set days for the longer stories! 🙂

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Large white birds flapped from palm tree to palm tree, hungrily eying the tourists sitting on the restaurant’s porch eating.

Mandy softly kicked Katie (who was next to her) under the table. “What about all those microscopic kingdoms?” she asked. “I wanna’ know!”

Katie smiled. “You really want to figure this out, don’t you? The reason we have Kingdom Monera and Kingdom Protista is because creatures aren’t put in them just because they’re microscopic—hence the kelp. We look at what kind of cell they are made of. Do you know what a cell is?”

Continue reading Module 9 & 10 Story #3

Module 9 & 10 Story #2

I think I usually post like everyday when I do science stories, in which case it’s high time I posted Part 2! 🙂

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Katie ran her comb through Mandy’s silky blond hair, the wet locks spattering a gentle mist behind it. Katie stood up and patted her sister’s shoulder. “Done.

“Alright, girls, get your shoes on then and let’s go get something to eat,” Dad answered.

Mandy hurried to the door at once, while Katie ran to put the comb away in the bathroom. Brian, whose hair required a little less time to be gotten presentable, stood already in his sandals, with the air of having done his good deed for the day. Katie slid into her flip-flops and grabbed her purse—she didn’t really need it, it wasn’t like she was buying lunch or anything, but she liked to have it with her.

Continue reading Module 9 & 10 Story #2

Module 9 & 10 Story #1

I haven’t been posting a whole lot lately.  Not sure why.  Anyway, I got an ending for my next science story, so I thought I should get posting it.  This is my first science story I didn’t write in first person, and it is also the first one that divided into parts naturally as I was writing it–and there’s no long conversations that got broken up into different parts.

Also, this is going to be my last science story.  There is another story I’m planning on writing that is sort-of scientific, is. . . very different from my other science stories!  I’m hoping to post that one too. . . And after that, my next story should be The Sacrifice!!!!  I’m super excited–though at the moment I’m kind of having writer’s blog. *sigh*

Anyway, my last science story:

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Fort Myers Beach, FL

Katie stood quietly in the wet sand, letting the cool water gently lick her toes; smiling as her eight-year-old brother Brian ran straight into the waves, and flung himself down on his stomach—soaking himself from head to foot in seconds.

“Aren’t you coming in, Katie?” shouted ten-year-old Amanda from waist-deep.

“Yes. At my own pace I am,” she answered, smiling at her younger siblings’ enthusiasm. It was her first time seeing the Ocean as well as theirs, but she did not feel inclined to break her habit of starting a bit slow.

Continue reading Module 9 & 10 Story #1

A Little Randomness

A post I wrote was featured on the Sparrow Fund blog again!  You can read it here.  I just wrote it recently, and I didn’t post it on here.  (Unlike “Broken”.)

Also, I need more help with names. (What on earth is my problem with names???)  In my next science story the main character has a little brother who is eight, and I need a name for him.  I’m looking for a fairly ‘normal’ name, but something a little exotic would be fine too.  Once I get a name for him and come up with a really strong line to end it with, I’ll be ready to post it! (Yay!)

Also, sorry I never got back to you guys on this post.  I’m still deciding on what names I’m going to use, but Christina suggested Amy and I know I’m going to use that one.  I’ll probably decide on the rest of them when I get to the characters in the story.

Thanks!

Module 8 Story #6

Phew!  I’ve been gone since Thursday, which for me lately, is a long time! 🙂  (Do any of you feel like I post too much?)

The last part!  Sorry it’s a little short.

I got no inspiration for a story while reading Module 9, but I just finished Module 10 and I’m working on writing one story for both modules, since they kind-of go together.  AND–this one’s not written in first-person!

Anyway, enjoy:

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I lay in bed that night, thinking about all this. It was so confusing. Everybody seemed to know what they believed except me. Dad had told me I should pray. I could just try it. Why not? Couldn’t hurt, could it? But how exactly did one pray? I had only heard people pray out loud—my parents before meals, and the pastor at church. But that was different.

“God,” I whispered. “If you exist, will You show me—answer me?”

“I tried praying last night,” I said at breakfast the next day, as casually as I could manage. “I’m waiting for my answer.”

“Good for you! Do you expect to be answered?” Dad asked, smiling.

“Yeah, I guess I do.” I smiled, though I had no idea why. “What do I do about it now?” I added, suddenly realizing that I didn’t really need an answer to believe in God anymore.

“Well, when you’re ready to follow Jesus you should pray and tell Him that you’re giving Him control of your life,” Mom said. “Then I think we should tell people.”

“Like… Uncle Zade?” I couldn’t help but think of him first.

“Yes, I think you should tell Zade.”

“Will he be mad, do you think?”

“I don’t know, hon. I don’t think so, but I think he’ll be disappointed.”

“I’m sorry about that. Do you think we should stop e-mailing?”

“Well, he might ask you questions you can’t answer. But if you’re willing to talk those through, I have no problem with it.”

“Could I ask Mr. Pirrip about them?”

“Yes, that’s a great idea. Do you want me to ask him for his e-mail address?”

“Yes, please. I’d love that!”

The End

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Yeah, you nailed it, Skylar.  At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to have Carol become a Christian at the end because it sounded to picture-perfect or stereotypical, but there was no other way to have a good ending.  Like it or hate it, sometimes stories just come, and there’s nothing you can do about it. #IKnowI’mWeird #AuthorsAreLikeThis

Well?  Thoughts?  Comments?  Concerns?  I’d love to hear what you thought of my second science story! 🙂

Module 8 Story #5

I am still planning on doing a book review today, but I’m not quite ready to post it and it’s about time for another story-post,  so I thought I would post this now and get my review out later today if I can.  By the way, the next part of this story is the last one.

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We went to “Jason’s Deli” and after we got our lunch, Mr. Pirrip started up our conversation again, “So, you were saying that your uncle told you fossils take million of years to form?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, actually they don’t. Many people say they do, but they don’t. We have found fossils of things like cowboy boots.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Really—don’t look so suspicious. It’s true. I’ll find you a picture.” He pulled a smart phone from his pocket, and after fiddling with it for a while he showed me a picture. I looked it up and down—still suspicious. “It doesn’t look like a fossil.”

“But it is though. And that didn’t take millions of years to form. We can all agree on that. We’ve found fossils of other modern things as well.”

Continue reading Module 8 Story #5