Hi, I’m Axel, and I’m nine years old. For the past two years, I’ve been coming to Family Matters for tutoring twice a week, where I work on my reading skills with my tutors. This summer was extra exciting because we did a really cool science project inspired by a book we read – “That Crazy Eddie and the Science Project of Doom” by Judy Cox.
This book is all about two friends, Matt and Eddie, who decide to enter a school science project competition. Matt really wants to win the fifty-dollar gift card prize so he can buy a skateboard. He asks his friend Eddie to be his partner because Eddie’s dad is a scientist, and Eddie always has great science ideas. They decide to build a volcano that erupts!
As they work on their volcano, Matt and Eddie have a falling out. When Matt returns to school after being sick, he learns Eddie told everyone he was ill, and Matt gets teased. Matt is angry, especially since the science contest is just a day away, and their project isn’t finished! Things get even more dramatic when Matt’s little sister climbs onto the roof to play with their cat. Matt is scared and runs to Eddie for help. Eddie, being a good friend despite their argument, rushes over and helps get Matt’s sister down safely. This experience reminds them of their friendship, and they decide to work together to finish their volcano project for the contest. They enter the competition but only get third place. Even though Matt doesn’t win the skateboard money, he realizes that having his friend back is more important than any prize.
I really enjoyed this book because of the volcano part! It was exciting to read about Matt and Eddie working together on their project, even with their friendship challenges. I also liked how they resolved their problems and helped Matt’s sister. The book even has a section at the end called “How to Make a Volcano That Really Erupts!” My tutor and I read these instructions together and gathered all the tools we needed to build our own volcano. I brought in things from home like a cardboard box, flour, and even some dinosaurs to decorate it!
Building the volcano took us three tutoring sessions. On the first day, we used an empty Pepsi bottle and covered it with masking tape. Then, we mixed newspaper with warm water and flour to create paper mache and molded it around the bottle to form the volcano shape. We had to carefully measure the flour and water to get the right consistency. Then, we let it dry completely. The next time I came for tutoring, we painted our volcano to make it look realistic.
Finally, during the third session, it was eruption time! We used baking soda, vinegar, dish soap, and red food coloring to create the eruption. We used a funnel to pour everything into the volcano. We waited, but nothing happened. We tried again, and still nothing! We thought maybe our baking soda was too old, so we went to the store across the street to get new baking soda. We tried the eruption mixture again, but it still didn’t work! Finally, we decided to add much more vinegar than the instructions suggested, and then… BOOM! It finally erupted!
It was so cool when the volcano exploded! I loved building it and making it erupt. Next time, I want to add even more red food coloring to make the lava look even redder! Reading “That Crazy Eddie and the Science Project of Doom” and then building our own volcano was a super fun and educational experience at Family Matters. It made learning about science really exciting!
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