The Day of the Science Project

Kids. You gotta love 'em.

So Dillon informs me Sunday night that he's got a 9th grade Science project due on Wednesday: Build a 3-D model of a plant or animal cell. Including nucleus, mitochondria, golgi bodies, vacuoles...(stop the time machine! I want to get off!)...for Christ's sake, I haven't thought about those things since 1981, and now I've got this 14 year-old honor student looking at me with that smirk on his face saying, "You don't know what golgi bodies are???" (Ha. Ha.)

"Yes, I KNOW what golgi bodies are, I just don't use them on a daily basis!" Smart ass. (Just don't ask for any help with Trig...)

ANYWAY, so despite all the confusion, I don't forget to ask him when this was assigned...

"Oh, just now."

"Just now? Your teacher just called you on Sunday night and dropped it in your lap?"

"Well, no, but not THAT long ago."

"Well, this paper says you have a week. That means you must have gotten it last Wednesday. Why are you just now mentioning it?"

(Have I mentioned that he spent all of Saturday night and most of Sunday running around the outer limits of Tokyo with his friend???)

"Well, no, she didn't give it to us on Wednesday. That was an A-day. It had to be Thursday."

(Again, a typical teenage tactic - trying to deflect my attention so that I'll forget that this is Sunday night and he now only has 48 hours to complete it.)

Me: "So...what are you going to make it out of?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you've only got 2 days. You better decide."

"She said we could use a styrofoam ball and hollow it out."

"Do you have a styrofoam ball?"

"No."

"What are you going to make the cell-things out of?"

"I don't know. I could use clay."

"Well, that means we'll have to go shopping tomorrow after school and buy supplies."

"Ok."

And he wanders off, happy as a clam that there's a plan. Should I call him back and holler at him that he waited TOO DAMN LONG???

Nah. His last report card was 6 A's and 2 B's.

So guess what Dillon, Mackenzie and I did all afternoon and evening long? We made an animal cell. Out of styrofoam, paint, pipe cleaners, beads, clay, and toothpicks.

We better get an A.