CROAK

Written and directed by
Ken Eklund, writerguy

Produced by
Kim Obbink

Illustrated by
Candace Lourdes
Coulas & Lourdes

Liaison at Access Excellence
VivianLee Ward

Liaison at Genentech
Geoffrey Teeter

Webmastering
Phil Mannle

Copyright 1999 Ken Eklund
and sciencemystery.com
Update 2004 by Ken Eklund

Someone notices something not quite right, and raises the alarm. People start getting involved. After staring at disconnected facts and chasing red herrings into dead ends, suddenly two facts click together, then three, then four. A pattern emerges. What started as someone's hunch progresses to a likely theory and eventually it's proved beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Sound like a detective story? It could be. But it also describes an archaeological discovery, a new math theorem, or the development of a promising new anti-virus drug.

It is our belief that a well-written mystery, with its intriguing characters, puzzles of logic and leaps of intuition, is a natural way to teach science. We hope that this fictional online story will inspire biology students around the world to solve the real-life mysteries awaiting them just outside the classroom door.

 

CROAK is one of a series of online science mysteries created for Access Excellence, a national science education program that's now part of the National Health Museum. Through Access Excellence, high school biology and life sciences teachers gain access to colleagues, scientists, and critical sources of new scientific information via the World Wide Web.

Try Our Other Science Mysteries:
• at The AE Mystery Spot
• at www.sciencemystery.com

 

SCIENCEMYSTERY.COM THANKS:
• Sara McCabe, Janet Tyburec and Merlin Tuttle, Bat Conservation International
• Sara McCabe's mom
• Barbara Palmer and Eric Kruffman, San Francisco Zoo
• Dan Belting, Point Defiant Zoo
• Maryclare Lauerman
• The Basurto family, esp Adriana, Jose and Nunu Basurto
• The Garcia family, esp Daniel Garcia

Graphics compression
by Zbig Pieciul