Student : Mr. Klosterman
Teacher : Mr. Klosterman
File : A Rock for Ramona
Date : May. 3, 2011
*** Scoring : 1091 Words, 92 Sents, 11.8 Word/Sent, 6.1 Kincaid, 6.1 iScore
The little remote island of Donga very rarely had visitors, events, or celebrations.
However, a cacophony of Poindexter Parrot shrieks filled Donga’s northern shore with
vibrant sounds. This chorus was accompanied by the thousands of rocky waterfalls that
surrounded Mt. Eldondo, a gigantic, still-active volcano.
The one celebration that all of the island’s youngsters enjoyed was Magma
Elementary’s Wacky Science Fair. In early May, all kinds of science experiments were
being secretly prepared. Rocket-powered bananas. Tree bark smoothies. Cactus
backscratchers.
Ramona Wills had been planning and collecting for almost an entire year. She
had scoured the entire island to finish her rock collection. It was her dream to be a
geologist, a person who studies rocks, when she got older. For now, she was happy being
a rock hound.
Chip Jarvis, Ramona’s best bud, had also been working on his science fair project
for some time. He had figured a way to use a coconut husk to make an airplane that
could fly across the island. Chip thought he was a shoe-in for this year’s Science Genius
Award.
On the Friday before the big unveiling of the Science Fair experiments, Chip and
Edverd Bellows were out near the Ballufa Falls, the highest waterfall on Donga, test
flying Chip’s AlmondJoy II.
“The key to the extended fly time is the coconut bark,” Chip was carefully
explaining to Everd. “This particular bark holds pockets of air that help stabilize and keep
the plane aloft. See the design here.” Chip held up his latest model for Everd to study.
“Dude. That is so cool,” Everd chuckled as he looked at the odd plane. “Let me
see how far it goes.” With that challenge, Chip cocked his arm back and with a smooth
motion sent the AJII out over the Falls.
The pair of boys stared into the bright sun as the coconut plane sailed and
swooped far into the distance. When it finally began its decent, it was, unfortunately,
headed directly for Mt. Eldondo’s wide mouth.
“Dude! That was awesome!” Everd, mouth wide open, stammered.
“Yeah great. Now we have to hike all the way to Edondo’s edge to retrieve it,”
grumbled Chip as the two set off toward the volcano’s mouth.
On the other side of the island near the edge of the Great Cacti Forest, Ramona
was quietly sobbing. She had spent a year searching, identifying, labeling and displaying
almost all of the 23 specimen of rocks native to Donga. She was only missing one, the
Shiny Volcanic Spotted Stone. Hiking Mt. Eldondo was not her favorite pastime. She
preferred to eat lifesavers and watch the Barcelona futbol team.
Through her irregular breaths, Ramona sighed, “I’ll never be the Science Fair
Genius if I don’t find the Shiny Volcanic Spotted Stone. Oh, what will I do?”
Chip and Everd heard Ramona’s sobs and wandered toward the giant green cacti.
“Dudette, what’s wrong?” Everd asked in his best surfer dude voice.
“The Science Fair is in three days, and I still haven’t found a Shiny Volcanic
Spotted Stone. It’s the only native specimen I don’t have,” Ramona replied trying to
sound like a real geologist.
“Are those stones shiny?” asked Chip.
“Yes, or course,” Ramona responded.
“Spotted?” continued Chip.
“Duh. Why else would the be called spotted.”
Chip furrowed his brow, “Would they be located near Mt. Eldondo?”
A great smile crossed Ramona’s face as she began to realize that the boys might
have spotted her last stone. “Did you guys see the Shiny Volcanic Spotted Stone? Did
you? Did you?”
The grin spread across Ramona’s face as she happily realized there was still a
chance she could be Genius of the Fair. Chip and Everd carefully explained the exact
location where they had spotted the shiny stone.
Before the boys left, they gave Ramona a quick word of warning. “Be careful.
The stone is just inside the mouth of the volcano so you’ll need some help getting down
to it.”
Ramona was too thrilled to think clearly, and she set out for the rim of Mt. Elondo
without coming up with a plan to retrieve the stone.
After carefully following the directions, Ramona reached the edge of the volcano,
and easily located the Shiny Stone. However, as the boys had warned her, it was at least
twenty feet down a steep slope into the mouth of the volcano.
“No problem,” Ramona muttered to herself. “I’m a hawk, and I can fly so I’ll just
glide down there and grab that stone.” The last words were barely out of her mouth as
Ramona jumped into the volcano. She easily sailed to within three feet of the stone when
she suddenly flew forty feet into the air. The heat pockets of air from the volcano shot
her out like a cannonball. She landed on the edge and immediately started to devise her
next plan.
Her neighbor, Joey, carried a long jungle vine to the edge of the volcano. “I’ll
hang on to the vine, and you climb down to the stone,” Joey instructed Ramona.
Climbing down the vine was difficult, and Ramona was frustrated when she reached the
end of the vine. She dangled ten feet from the prize and could not reach it no matter how
hard she stretched.
Ramona’s next plan involved a banana tree branch ladder. Ramona, Joey, and
Skip quickly constructed a ladder using banana tree branches, palm fronds, and coconut
husks. Although the plan had promise, the heat and flames from the volcano quickly
destroyed the fragile ladder.
The friends put their heads together and came up with the best idea yet. Joey’s
little brother, Jack, had a super cool bow and arrow set. Skip suggested tying some
fishing line to an arrow and shooting the stone with a suction cupped arrow.
Jack showed his accuracy and after only three attempts he had hit the stone and
attached the arrow.
“Pull it up carefully,” Joey coached Ramona as she steadily pulled the stone up to
Mt. Edondo’s lip.
Ramona squealed with pleasure as her hand grasped the wonderful stone that
would finally complete her native rock collection. She was proud of her friends for
helping her and knew she couldn’t have done it alone.
On Monday at the Wacky Science Fair, Ramona glowed with excitement over her
project. Although she didn’t win the Science Genius Award, she did get a blue ribbon
for her outstanding organization.
One day, Ramona knew deep down in her heart that she would be a geologist and
enjoy every day studying rocks.