“Rise and shine” my mom said calmly, turning on the light “Emily!” I was already sitting in bed with a flashlight reading my favorite book, Harry Potter! “You silly silly girl” she chuckled, leaning against my bedside, hugging me saying good morning again. I hugged her back and started reading once more. “I’m never going to stop reading” I announced proudly. “Well you're going to have to if you want to get dressed” and with that she grabbed my book and took it out to the living room.

I got dressed and walked out to the kitchen to greet my mom who was getting the really old cereal out of the cupboard (I was hoping I would never have to eat it). I sat down at the dining room table scanning the room for my lost (or taken away) book. I felt cold air drifting up on my face, then faintly smelling granola I looked down. Sure enough there were three bowls of cereal placed on the table, each with a small amount of milk poured into it. I seized one of the the bowls, tried not to think about it, and gulped the crunchy stuff down. In a hurry I dashed off to brush my teeth.

Seconds later my two cousins, Elsa and Owen, came hurrying there way down to my house because they were getting a ride to school by my mom and her precious car. Me, my sister Skylar, and my brother ben, scurried around the house looking for things we might have forgotten to pack. Once we made sure we had everything we grabbed our backpacks and rushed out the door. We drove past a library, a church, and a lot of houses to get to school.

All five of us (Owen, Skylar, Elsa, Ben, and I) jumped out of the car and walked to school, each of us going to different places. I went into Explorer Elementary. Thankfully, I wasn’t late. I walked into class and everyone was typing, coloring, making costumes, or running around like bees in a beehive. I got started right away and made a name tag that said my name and what team I was on, I was on the PR team (Public Relations). Then I started to make a fireplace because we were going to have one at the exhibition. We were about to stuff the box. So we covered it in black paper with orange stuffing. Then my friend came up to me and asked me to make her a dolphin tale. Of course I said I would and I got to work.

After I made her a costume a few other people wanted to me to make them costumes. I had made three other costumes when Mrs.Chown told us it was time to go get set up at the exhibition sight. We all sat up at the sound of that because some of us still had a lot to do (not me though). I gathered all of my items and our class started to walk over to yellow book road, a bookstore (where we had our exhibition).

Right as we got there Mrs.Chown started giving orders and we set up. Then after a few minutes people started filing in and we sat around the fireplace. There were two rows of kids, twelve in the first and twelve in the back. The first row stood up and one by one they read out their story extracts. Once they sat down, my row stood up. I was second to last but at least it went fast. The person to my left shouted their extract, it was time . .  time to read mine. This is what I said: “They both CHARGED at the pipeline but it was TOO strong for them AND their flippers, they were sent flying up into shadowy darkness.” After the last few people finished reading there extracts the P.R. group started handing out exhibition guides. I was in that group so I walked around looking for people that didn’t have a guide.

Once I finished handing out paper, I spied my mom looking at a yellow book in the children's section. I walked up to her and told her to follow me. We walked over to a short, thin shelf where all of the pictures we drew for our story’s were in thick black picture frames. We searched the shelf until we found the picture I drew. My mom LOVED it. The picture I had drawn was about an adventuress and scary dragon stomping on a beautiful castle. (It was for the cover of our book)

After that I asked my mom if she would care to buy a book. Of course she said she would certainly buy one and she said she’d buy one right there and then, well, maybe not there but she would buy one right at that moment. So she went to the counter where you were supposed to buy the books and asked how much they were. They costed $8.00 and a donation if you wanted to help a charity called Words a!ive.

Before we wrote our book we had to decide which charity to raise money for, that's where Words a!ive come in! We all looked at all the different charities, but the one we voted on was . . . Words a!ive! Words a!ive is a charity that helps people to read. Go Words a!ive!

Anyway, my mom bought a book and started looking through it. “Wow Emily, I like your story!” “Thanks!” “Emily can you sign my book please?!” I heard someone from behind us say. “Oh, yeah, of course!” I would never miss an opportunity to become Famous!
Though I would never really become famous from that.

We started looking around for good books to read (We Were In a Book Store)
We got two books from the Skulduggery series, which I'm reading right now, and a few other books. Then my mom asked me, “Emily, do you want to leave, I had a wonderful time! Thankyou, can you go thank Ms. Chown and ask her if we can leave with happy thoughts?” “Okay” I shrugged. I went off, thanked Ms. Chown, and We left!
I cant wait to have yet another amazing exhibition!
                The End!


​

We started out with the welcomers. They gave an opening speech about what the adventure playground is. Next came the rule readers. They read all our rules.

Then after they had read all the rules everybody started playing(the kids we we were teaching). I started out taking some notes about what they started out building. These were some of my header notes for Ms. Feitelberg’s class: “ Making a slip and slide out of cardboard. A lot of teepees. Making a horn out of pvc pipe. Colliding into each other on the slip and slide. Making houses and cubes.” We were taking notes for our research questions and to share with our class. Also if we saw anything that was against the rules we would go up to the person who broke them and give them a message. I learned that you had to look up a lot and really get a picture of all the things that were around you, to get the full share of notes. Also you had to write really fast because so many actions or things to write down  were around you. This job was really fun for me because I really like taking down notes and seeing interesting things. This job also gives me a lot of information for my research question. If we were to teach another class I would definitely want this job because it was so fun and interesting. 

By Seth and Ian 

“Turtles!” Someone exclaimed. We were eating lunch at the turtle ponds in San Diego State University (aka SDSU) on Friday, February the 27th, 2015. Our 4th grade class, Room 15, was here so we could interview social science professors with our questions about research. We had already done our first interview and we were about to do our second one,  Everyone was very excited because there was two ponds with mini waterfalls, lily pads, rocks, big and little coy fish, and lots and lots of turtles! They were everywhere! In the water paddling around, atop rocks in the midst of the pond, and even posing on the ridge of the pond so people could get a good look at them. I had finished my lunch and I was looking at the patterns on each turtle’s shell.

“Gather in!” Ms. Chown’s voice rang out. I collected my belongings, (lunch box, journal, pen), and I raced up the hill that led down to the ponds. Our class crowded around Ms. Chown. She had her schedule in hand and was reading out the groups. “Professor Ulloa, Psychology, Life Sciences Room 106. Margaret, Nick’s mom is the chaperone, and in that group is Will, Nick, Ella, Halle and Rigel.”  

Our group ran over to Ms. Margaret. We headed to professor Ulloa’s office. Rigel and Will were jumping around, dancing and singing to “Everything is Awesome” from the Lego movie. Ms. Margaret stopped us. “Guys,” she said in a serious tone. “We are not lego men. “We are scientists. Let’s take 3 deep breaths.” I took 3 deep breaths, feeling silly. Rigel and Will started swaggering toward the Life Sciences building where Professor Ulloa’s office was located. Ms. Margaret stopped in the doorway in front of the life sciences door. “This is what a lecture room looks like.” She whispered, even though nobody was in there. We crept up the stairs and I sat in a seat. I looked like an amphitheater, however it was inside. At the bottom there was a table and a podium with a computer on it. “Come on guys!” I said impatiently. I didn’t want to be late!

We went in the doorway that said Life Sciences and went down two flights of stairs. “Where do we go now?” We went through a doorway and saw some stairs and a steep ramp on the other side. “I think we should go down the stairs.”  The air smelled strongly of mildew. “I think we're underground.” I whispered. 
“No wonder it smells so weird.” Will replied. 
We came down the stairs and we found ourselves face to face with a locked door. “Back up the stairs!” Ms. Margaret chirped. Rigel and I ran up the ramp. We went out ANOTHER doorway and down ANOTHER flight of stairs. Our party came to some professors having a meeting. “Do you know where Dr. Ulloa’s office is?” Ms. Margaret inquired. “Room 106?” 
“Down the stairs, to the left and through a doorway.” The professor answered. “Thank you!” We chorused. The social science department of Explorer Elementary, (plus one parent) hurried down the stairs, turned a left (into a cactus garden) and through the doorway. 


We saw a sign announcing “Psychology Department. We saw long corridor with many doors on either side. It reminded me of a labyrinth. On top of each door there was a plaque indicating the room number. 131, 130, 129, 128, 127… It went on and on. “We’re on the right track!” Ms. Margaret said. We turned a corner and saw the room 106. Halle knocked. No one answered. I knocked. No one answered. “Would you like to knock Nick?” His mother asked. Nick knocked. Rigel knocked. Still, nobody answered. 


I tried the door. It was locked. I listened. I could hear voices. The next door was ajar. We went in. There was a desk with a woman sitting at it. “Do you know where Dr. Ulloa’s office is?” Ms. Margaret inquired again. 
“He is at a meeting, but he will be back soon. Would you like to go into a conference room to wait?” The lady asked. “Sure!” Ms. Margaret replied. “Look guys!” I exclaimed. “Carnivorous plants!” My friends and I ran over to the large tank, (after asking Ms. Margaret). There were Venus Fly Traps and lots of other plants that I did not know the names of. I was disappointed. There were no insects for the plants to eat! “Professor Ulloa is here!” Halle called. We fast-walked over to the room where Professor Ulloa was. We introduced ourselves, saying we were from the Explorer Elementary Department of Social Science. 

We went into the room. There was a huge polished wooden table and chairs on each side. On the wall at the end of the table there was a GIANT television. There was a white board on either side of the room. On the table there were compartments with wires in them. Professor Ulloa said that you could plug your computer in and your presentation would show up on the screen. Now it was time to begin our interview. Here are the questions that we asked him and their answers:


Question: What do you do?
Answer: I collect information that helps my students and I research about human behavior.

Question: How did you become a psychology professor?
Answer: I was always interested in feelings.

Question:What is the most interesting part of what you do?
Answer: I learn new things everyday.

Question: What makes a good research question?
Answer: You have a sense of what the answer might be, however you don’t know without testing it.

Question: What is action research?
Answer: You don’t understand the problem however you can do research to help it.

Question: What do we need to do to conduct action research ethically?
Answer: You want to make sure that you don’t harm anyone. You even have to be careful asking questions because some people can be really sensitive.

Question: How do academic researchers share their research?
Answer:The primary way is publishing your piece in a journal. You can also have a conference, you can share your work with students or you can do a presentation.   


That was our interview! My favorite thing that Professor Ulloa told us was experiences change the way people think and see things. For example, if you had a good experience, you might see a things in a good way. However, if you had a bad experience, you might see things in a bad way. I thought that was really interesting. One thing in life could change your future!

After our interview, we said goodbye to Dr. Ulloa and we walked back through the cactus garden, (I noticed a pond that I had not seen before, but there were no fish or turtles in it, there was only a plastic duck and a bunch of lily pads completely covering the surface and some reeds in the back corner,) back up the stairs and through the door of the Life sciences building and back to the sundial where we we meeting our class.

We were the first ones there, so we went down to the turtle pond and played, pretending we had pet turtles. (Well, Halle and I were). A few minutes passed and Ms. Margaret called us back up to the sundial. The rest of the class was there and we took a picture in front of the majestic building behind us. I said thank you to Ms. Margaret and to Stephen, Mikaila’s dad, who is a professor at SDSU and who organized this whole trip for us!  Ms. Chown called our car group to her. Addison’s mother was driving but she was at work. In my group was me, Addison, Anelisa and Leila. We walked back to the parking garage. We went down the elevator and walked back to the car. 

As we sped back to school, I thought, “What a great trip!”

By Ella