Introductory Note to Parent
The second activity in this lesson involves putting baking soda in the oven for 40 minutes. We recommend getting that set up before you begin reading the narrative so that it is ready when you come to Activity 2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then spread several tablespoons of baking soda on a baking sheet or oven safe dish. Bake the baking soda at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. When it is done baking, you can set it aside until it is time to use it.
The Narrative
Imagine this.
Your first work of purification is complete. The rocks and sand are gone. The salt is gone. What was once muddy and unpleasant has become clear and pure. It is not much—you have not turned iron into gold—but it is a beginning.
You glance across the workshop at Zosimos. He is still bent over his desk, scratching away at a sheet of writing. The fire has burned lower, leaving much of the room in shadow, but Zosimos does not seem to notice. Every so often, he pauses, stares into the darkness, and then begins writing again.
You return to the bundle of pages he gave you. If Zosimos is right, then purification is only the beginning. Somewhere in these strange writings are more clues. More secrets. More instructions for changing the world around you. So you keep reading.
Several pages are covered with symbols you cannot read. Others contain drawings of vessels, flames, and curling tubes. Then you find a passage that reads like a strange dream.
I saw a tall structure, shaped like a glass jar, but it somehow seemed to me like an altar at the temple. The structure was high up, and there was a staircase leading up to it. Standing at the top was a mysterious priest. I slowly walked the fifteen steps of the staircase until I stood before the priest.
You stop reading and look around the workshop. Near the fire stands a tall glass vessel. In the shadow and flickering light, it looks a little like a tower—or perhaps an altar.
You return to the page and continue to read the strange story.
Then the priest spoke to me. “I descended dark steps, and then I ascended the shining stairs. I have been broken, and I have been burned. Through this journey, I was changed and made new. Through this journey, I became a spirit.”
You pause again. The priest has descended and ascended. He has been broken and burned. Somewhere in that strange journey, he has left behind what he was and become something new.
Across the room, Zosimos shifts in his chair. For a moment, you think he might explain the passage. Instead, he dips his writing reed and continues his work.
You read on.
Then I saw the same altar-like glass, but it was filled with boiling water, and things were floating in the water, moving up and down. I watched, and they seemed to change as I watched.
A vessel near the fire bubbles softly. Drawn by the soft noise, you look away from the page. Pale shapes move within the cloudy liquid, rising and sinking.
You keep reading.
Then an old man came and stood beside me, and he said, “That vessel represents the entrance, the exit, and the transformation. Once something enters, it is changed, leaving behind its former self and becoming something new.”
You lower the page. Zosimos is watching you from the shadows. “Strange, right?” he asks with a slight smile.
To this you readily agree.
After a moment, he bends over his desk and begins writing again.
You know that you are reading far more than a strange story. You are reading a kind of code. A code that will teach you how to change things. Things enter. Things leave. Between the entrance and the exit, something happens to them. They are broken, burned, boiled, or moved—and they emerge changed.
If the vision is a code, then the first step toward understanding it is clear. You must identify what changed and what caused each change. You turn back to the beginning and begin reading again, this time looking for clues.
Activity 1: Identifying Methods of Change
Now that you have realized that you are looking at a code, a secret to how you can change an old thing into something new, your first task has become clear. You need to crack the code. So, let’s begin like this.
First, identify the people or things in the story that went through some kind of change.
Second, identify what caused the change for each person or thing.
In your Apprentice Journal, turn to the page for this activity. There, you will find the code written out on a sheet of papyrus. With a red pen or pencil, circle the people or things that changed in the dream. Then, with a blue pen or pencil, underline the methods that changed them.
Do you think you are a step closer to understanding what is going on?
Activity 2: Applying Methods of Change
The story records what changed other people and things, and perhaps it is hinting at methods you can use to change other stuff. Now that you have identified some methods, you can try them out and see if they work.
To complete this activity, you will need:
-
- Your copy of The Laboratory: Apprentice Journal (available here)
- An adult with oven mitts
- Baking soda
- Epsom salt (not table salt or sea salt)
- A cookie sheet or other baking sheet
- 3 drinking glasses
- A LEGO figurine or toy of a similar size
(By the way, this experiment involves the oven and hot temperatures. You need an adult to handle the oven and the hot stuff in this experiment.)
Before you begin, have an adult preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and let it heat while you conduct the next few steps of this experiment.
When you are ready to begin, pour a half-cup of water in a glass, and mix a tablespoon of Epsom salt into it, stirring until the salt is dissolved. Then pour a half-cup of water in a second glass, mix a tablespoon of baking soda into the water, and stir until the baking soda is dissolved. Wait a couple of minutes until the water in both cups has settled and appears fairly clear.
As you are waiting, find a LEGO figurine or a toy of similar size. Just for fun, we are going to try to get this guy trapped in a blizzard. Set the figurine on the bottom of a third drinking glass, and explain to him that you are about to drop a blizzard on him. He will complain and tell you that he doesn’t want to be trapped in a blizzard. You must be firm and tell him that he has no choice in the matter because it is all in the name of education.
Once your little guy is in place and has stopped complaining, it is time to bring the snow. Get your two glasses (the glasses with the salt water and the baking soda water). Dump them on the figurine and watch what happens.
Did you get a blizzard?
Or is the little guy laughing at you now?
(If he is laughing at you, tell him that you are not done—you will bring the blizzard soon and then he will be sorry.)
Now we are going to give one of Zosimos’ changing methods a try. Would you agree that the priest was changed in the story, and one of the ways he was changed was through heat? (He says ‘I have been burned.’ That seems like heat.) So let’s give heat a try and see if it makes a difference.
(Note: If you followed the recommendation at the beginning of the lesson, then you have already done this part.) Pour several tablespoons of baking soda in a thin layer on a cookie sheet. When the oven is at 400 degrees, have an adult slide the cookie sheet into the oven and set a timer for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, have an adult pull the cookie sheet out.
Now put a half-cup of water in a glass and mix a tablespoon of Epsom salt into it, just as you did before. Then get a second glass and put a half-cup of water in it. Mix into that cup a tablespoon of the powder you just pulled from the oven.
Once the materials in the two cups have dissolved and the water is fairly clear, tell that little guy to get ready, because you are about to drop some snow on him. (What is he doing this time? Is he complaining? Or is he scoffing and laughing?)
Dump the contents of both cups into the glass bowl and watch what happens.
Was it different?
If so, what changed?
Did Zosimos’ change method work?
In your copy of the Apprentice Journal, record what you have done and observed. (If you need to laugh at your Lego guy, now would be a good time to do it. But only for a short time, because it might be cold in there, and you need to pull him out and dry him off.)
Explanation
What happened in that activity? You probably noticed that the first time, no ‘snow’ appeared. You poured two clear liquids in the bowl, and the result was a clear liquid. That makes sense. The second time, you poured two clear liquids in the bowl, and ‘snow’ resulted. What made the difference? The only difference was adding heat to the baking soda (and the laughing of the Lego guy, but that didn’t have much effect on the experiment).
As Zosimos’ code predicted, adding heat to a thing (in this case the baking soda) might change it into another thing. The heat of the oven turned the baking soda into a new thing called sodium carbonate which behaved differently than the baking soda. The baking soda and Epsom salt both dissolve in water (meaning they break up into tiny particles in the water so they are pretty much invisible), and that is why the water in the glasses looked pretty clear. When the baking soda and Epsom salt were mixed together in the bowl, nothing changed, and so the water remained clear (allowing you to see the mocking eyes of your Lego guy, unfortunately). But the sodium carbonate had a different personality than the baking soda. It acted differently towards the Epsom salt. The sodium carbonate grabbed hold of the tiny Epsom salt molecules floating in the water, and pulled on it so that it was no longer dissolved and invisible. All of a sudden, everything quit being tiny and dissolved, and it got big, mushy, visible, white ‘snow’ (covering the surprised eyes of your Lego guy, fortunately).
Zosimos was right. Heat can change one thing into another.