Downstream: Claudia and the Science Club Book One

By Kathryn Foster

Claudia's a high school freshman (and a happy science nerd) who trusts facts more than feelings.

Feelings and facts are messing up her science project and her relationship with her friend's brother.

Claudia and the Science Club solve a local water quality problem that could save a young woman's life.

Science really is a matter

• Language: English
• Publisher: Livingdownstream Press
• Release date: Mar 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088114933

Book preview

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CLAUDIA AND THE SCIENCE CLUB

Downstream

Kathryn Foster

Downstream Press

Third Edition, Copyright © 2018 by Kathryn Foster.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the author or publisher.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Published by Downstream Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80907

[e-mail]

Graphic design by S. Winthers

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced

without formal permission.

ISBN: 978-1-0881-0996-0

This book is dedicated to my mother, Gloria; my two daughters, Gretchen and Hannah; and grandchildren, Ryder and Claudia, who love to read.

Special thanks to my husband, Billy,

who encouraged me to run away and write.

Thank you to Friends of Everbloom, a local not-for-profit that supports work to enhance our local reservoirs and supports annual stream monitoring for feeder streams. Thank you to Riverwatch, the organization that trains volunteer Citizen Scientists and overseas all stream monitoring in Illinois. Thanks, too, to the Parklands Foundation who have purchased and set aside many acres of woodlands in Central Illinois that create a buffer for waterways as well as beautiful places for residents to enjoy.

Thank you to Maria and Lucy and Susie…

the first to read the manuscript.

You gave me the courage to keep going.

Table of Contents

Chapter I 11

Chapter II 15

Chapter III 23

Chapter IV 29

Chapter V 35

Chapter VI 37

Chapter VII 43

Chapter VIII 49

Chapter IX 53

Chapter X 59

Chapter XI 63

Chapter XII 67

Chapter XIII 73

Chapter XIV 79

Chapter XV 83

Chapter XVI 89

Chapter XVII 93

Chapter XVIII 97

Chapter XIX 101

Chapter XX 107

Chapter XXI 111

Chapter XXII 115

Chapter XXIII 123

Chapter XXIV 129

Chapter XXV 131

Chapter XXVI 139

Chapter XXVII 141

Chapter XXVIII 143

Chapter XXIX 145

Chapter XXX 149

Chapter XXXI 153

Chapter XXXII 155

Chapter XXXIII 159

Chapter XXXIV 167

Chapter XXXV 175

Chapter XXXVI 181

Chapter XXXVII 185

Chapter XXXVIII 189

Chapter XXXIX 195

Chapter XL 197

Chapter XLI 201

Chapter XLII 203

Chapter XLIII 205

Chapter XLIV 209

Chapter XLV 215

Downstream discussion questions: 221

Glossary 223

Livingdownstreamblog.com 227

Preface

Everything runs downstream.

Downstream is where we live.

October

The dying fire sizzled as raindrops fell from the gray sky. A few flames still burned yellow at the base, licking the remains of the birch leaves that lay over pieces of torn cartons. The fire-starters hiked back across newly harvested fields to get inside. They lit fires regularly when seasons changed. It was just business.

The sky opened, and the fire went out. Ashes rose to the top of the large blue-green puddle forming in the fire pit. Surface tension gave way, and the puddle overflowed into the narrow, sloping waterway winding down through the bare field toward Money Creek. A gentle rain continued throughout the afternoon. The bare birch trees and soggy stubs of corn stalks were the only witnesses.

Chapter I

Saturday, May 9th

Claudia

Hey, Sunshine! Mom stuck her head in the door. Shelby and Ben are picking you up for the Science Club field trip in an hour.

Claudia ran her fingers through her hair to see if the shower could wait, then grabbed the junky jeans off the floor, pulled them on, threw on her camp tee shirt from last summer, and went to brush her teeth.

As a freshman, getting out of bed early on Saturday morning without resistance could be considered seriously abnormal, but she’d woken up looking forward to the day. Glancing in the mirror Claudia decided to do the minimum to get ready… like most days. Hanging out with her best friend, Shelby Hawkins, was more important. Shelby and her brother, Ben, were picking her up to go out to a stream northeast of town that she’d never seen for an extra-credit science project.

Running downstairs and jumping over her book bag, Claudia grabbed the post at the bottom of the stairs, swinging in an arc to make the turn to go back to the kitchen. Heading straight for the pantry she reached down to the middle shelf to grab a Clif Bar, passing her Dad (Jim) and Mom (Susie). She reached into the vegetable drawer for a yogurt drink wondering why they called it a vegetable drawer? At Claudia’s house it was always full of yogurt. She was half listening to her parents’ conversation.

Did you see the latest story about Lindsay Walls? Dad asked. They really intend to go through with it."

Yeah, I heard yesterday on WJBC. They said she poisoned her stepfather. Mom saw Claudia’s look of horror.

Seriously, Mom? They will kill her?

Unless some new evidence turns up before Thursday, she replied. The whole story is tragic.

Claudia finally connected that this was the story all the parents had been discussing for the past couple of years. Evidently, this girl, who would have graduated last year, if she hadn’t been in jail, was fixing breakfast when her step dad choked and fell out of his chair. He’d been out fishing with friends early that morning. Lindsay’s mother wasn’t home. They lived outside of town and there was no one else around. He was dead by the time the girl had called 911 and help arrived. At first everyone thought he’d died of a heart attack because he smoked and was out of shape. As the case unfolded, there was no heart attack and toxicology reports pointed to poison. Lindsay and her step dad had a long history with lots of fighting and threats. She had also been in and out of trouble at school, and she and her boyfriend had threatened a classmate on Facebook. The death penalty had been a surprise since she was only seventeen, but no one was sympathetic when the jury heard how the man died. Lindsay had been in jail since the trial and Claudia had forgotten about her. Ben said he’d heard she was a nice girl, but Claudia really didn’t know her at all, and if she poisoned her step dad, well...

It’s tragic, said Mom as she started pouring Honey Nut Cheerios into a bowl for Claudia. She held up her Clif Bar and told Mom to skip the cereal this morning.

She didn’t know what to say… the whole thing freaked her out, so she put in ear buds and turned up the music to avoid the rest of the discussion while eating the yogurt and energy bar. She didn’t know Lindsay, and it just sounded like some TV show.

Claudia had to tune back in after two minutes because her Mom was saying her name and looking like she had a question.

Yeah?

Do you need to use Dad’s fishing boots for this field trip? They’ll keep your feet and jeans dry if you will be mucking around in the stream this morning.

No thanks, Claudia said, thinking wearing Dad’s waders would be the last thing she wanted.

I’ll put them by the front door in case you change your mind. It’s still May and it will be chilly out there if you get wet.

Maybe Ben will want to borrow them, Claudia said, thinking that Ben was way too cool to be seen in them. Still, it would make Mom feel better if she took them along.

She was wondering about what they would find in the stream while waiting on the front porch. Mr. Bowman had been showing slides and descriptions of macroinvertebrates in their various larval stages in class. He said the varieties and numbers of these things found in a sample could determine the health of the stream. Today they were collecting them in Money Creek, and later in the summer they would have a lab day to identify them. Secretly she thought they were cool. Most of them looked like mini versions of the aliens in the Star Wars movies. Claudia looked up to see Ben and Shelby pulling into the driveway and Shelby waving out the window.

Chapter II

Claudia jumped into the back seat of Ben’s car after throwing her Dad’s waders into the back. Ben already had the large white bucket, a shovel, a net on a pole, the measuring tape and the clear plastic sorting trays in there. The location of the site and the GPS coordinates were on a sticky note on the dashboard.

Claudia, do you have the rest of the stuff we need?

Yep, it’s still in my backpack from class. I have the pictures of what we might find, small jars to store the specimens and the long tweezers for picking up the little critters, plus some alcohol to keep them intact in the jars. Is there anything else?

Shelby piped in, I have the sunscreen and bug spray!

In that case I think we’re ready, said Ben.

Bloomington isn’t a small town, but it only takes about 20 minutes to get from one end to the other. It sits in the middle of corn and soybean fields as far as you can see. It’s flat. There are two good hills for sledding. One is at Highland Park Golf Course and the other one that the Normal kids go to is on Jersey Avenue. (Normal is the town just north of Bloomington.)

It’s windy. On the way out of town they saw fields filled with wind turbines. When she was little, they put up the giant towers. Each had three huge blades that turned to face into the wind. Their science teacher said they capture the energy and send it to the power grid. The windmills looked graceful to Claudia, but she’d heard some of her parents’ friends say they hate them.

They were all singing along to a country song when Ben spoke up, pointing out the driver’s window. See those trees following that curvy path across the field? I think it’s Money Creek. It’s just a little further.

Money Creek didn’t look like much, but she hadn’t noticed the nature stuff in their town. She liked to read about science and watch Discovery Channel programs. Science classes were usually her favorites in school, but real science in Bloomington? That was a surprise. They had signed up in class to become Citizen Scientists for extra credit, and it was turning out to be fun. Money Creek, the stream they were monitoring this morning, was northeast of town on some Parklands Foundation land. Mr. Bowman had called to get permission for them to go on their property.

They were the only ones in the gravel parking lot. Shelby and Claudia each grabbed a shovel and a bag chair and Ben got the buckets and other supplies. They hiked down the path wearing backpacks and carrying the rest of the equipment, tripping and laughing and complaining for another 10 minutes till they arrived at a shallow spot on the creek bank where they set up camp for the morning.

It was pretty. The trees had been in bloom for just a few weeks and the leaves were just budding out. There was plenty of light, but the leaves in the breeze above seemed to toss the light around, which reflected off the slow-moving water in the stream.

Ben put on his waders, went down to the stream with a bucket, and put the shovel and measuring pole where they were within reach. Shelby set up a bag chair and was taking pencils and a sketchpad out of her backpack. Ben looked back at Shelby.

Shelby, can you draw a picture of this site? Include the trees alongside the stream and the ones that have fallen into the water. Those logs and rocks look like they have been here a while. See if you can highlight the places where the bank has been undercut by the water.

Shelby looked serious as her eyes moved across the area in order to get it right. She sat down and leaned over the paper, engrossed in the picture. Claudia set up the other chair and pulled the rest of the things they needed out of the backpacks.

Ben, she said without looking up, get your phone out and take pictures, will you? That way I can fill in anything I missed later. And check the location on the GPS so we can write it down and confirm the location.

Good idea.

Claudia, we will measure out the survey area. Put on those waders your Dad gave you and let’s see how deep the water is. The waders became less embarrassing, suddenly. Once she’d wiggled into them Claudia noticed two Velcro tabs at her hips, but did not understand what to do with them. Ben came over and showed her how they hooked to her belt (or in this case, belt loops) so they would stay up.

Aha! She said, looking down as he attached one side while she did the other. So that is what those are for… probably should have worn a belt… these things are heavy. Claudia looked up and saw his serious look as he helped. Funny, she had never really noticed how blue his eyes were or how he had a swirl at the hairline above his right eye and a lock of blonde hair curled there. Well… that was weird. Sheesh, it’s Ben… Shelby’s brother… what the heck am I thinking! Claudia laughed out loud and pushed the unusual feeling away.

Okay, Claudia said. According to the instructions, we mark the center spot and then one of us takes the end of the tape measure and another flag and walks downstream, stopping at one hundred feet to mark the spot. They splashed into the stream and she bent over to put the center flag into the stream bottom. I’ve got two more flags; this looks like a good place to start.

Ben looked upstream and pointed to a log that was half in and half out of the water. I think so, too. One hundred yards upstream puts us past that log where that big pile of leaves is, he said, pointing south. He turned the opposite way.

Claudia said, Going downstream we can look under the log near that tree that fell across the creek and also check out the undercut where the stream turns. What do you think? Ben nodded.

Shelby spoke up from the shoreline where she was drawing rapidly. That would be perfect. I have room to get all those things into the drawing. It looks shallow enough all the way from one end to the other. Try not to kick up too much mud while you are measuring.

The water was running just over the tops of their feet at the center of the stream. Ben took one flag and the tape measure and slowly