By: Tucker

    Seven weeks ago, in Breckenridge, Colorado, a very unusual white, powdery substance appeared at the Dexter High School in the courtyard. No one could figure out what the unusual powder was! So of course, the principal, Mrs. Cowdery, called the best scientists on earth..… us!

    The powders were narrowed down to a possible six color-coded white powders. The colors were Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange, and Purple. We had to make a hypothesis, a hunch, and rule powders in and out until we figured out the contents of the mystery powder at Dexter High.

    We checked for starch, acid, and base. Red is Base, Blue is acid, and Green was a starch. We mixed all powders with seven liquids: oil, water, alcohol, vinegar, Phenol Red, Phenolphthalein, and iodine.

    Our teacher gave us the identity of each colored powder. Red is baking soda, yellow is salt, green is cornstarch, blue is citric acid, orange is calcium and purple is sugar. At this point, the Mystery Powder was still unknown. We were hopeful we would uncover what the Mystery Powder was and how it got to Dexter School.

    The Mystery Powder is (finally!): Baking Soda because when our group mixed the powder with Vinegar, it fizzed. We got the same reaction with Calcium Carbonate. It wasn’t Calcium Carbonate because when we checked for base, Baking Soda was a base and Calcium Carbonate wasn’t.

There was cornstarch because we used iodine, an indicator for starch, and it turned black. Cornstarch is the only starch of the six powders tested. There was salt because when our group smelled it and looked at our summary sheet, the powder contained granules like salt.

    The way the powder could have gotten to Dexter School was the bakery. It has lots of Baking Soda. When a supplier was delivering it to the apartment building near Dexter School, some fell off and went through the air. It then landed on the schoolyard and no one knew it. The salt came from the candy shop. It was there because it was a windy day and someone accidentally dropped a bag of Kosher Salt out the window. It took to the air, stuck to the Baking Soda and kept going through the air. The bakery truck delivered the cornstarch to a different area. Someone dropped a bag when unloading and into the air it went. There was a mini-tornado and the powders mixed together. The wind died down and the powder landed on the Dexter School yard.

    That’s how it got there and what it is. I told you we we're the best scientists on Earth!

The End

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