The Journey

This is what you get when you tell an artistic 13 year old girl to read about rivers and write a short paper:

Hello, I am a water molecule and this is my story.  I came from deep underground inside a mountain.  Then, one day, I found myself moving upwards with the rest of my friends and we came right up out of the ground in what is called a fresh water spring.  From there, we flowed through our drainage basin, which is like a trench in the mountain, and through the upper course of our river.  In the upper course, we were bounced, thrown, and jostled a lot and even went down a cliff in a waterfall.  During that time, our groups was crystal clear and free of mud and sand.  A little while later, we flowed through the lower course of our river.  In this part of the river, we were joined by other tributaries and I met many new friends.  A friend of mine who had been down the river once and had actually ended up back in our spring said that there was a large curve in the river, but all that was there was a straight stretch and odd curvy lake that older molecules called an oxbow lake.  Anyway, as we went through the lower course, we picked up some passengers.  Mud, sand, and silt were the main ones, but we also picked up some rock particles we wore away on our trip.  After a few days of that we came to the delta.  In the delta, we all split off into smaller and smaller groups until all that was left of our great river was a giant, mushy marsh.  In there, we picked up some green algae and had our first brush with salt water molecules.  the really weren’t all that different.  From there, we were swept slowly into the sea, and I’ve never seen my home spring again.  It’s not as bad as you’d think, though.  It’s actually rather fun being evaporated and condensed and rained down on the earth.  Since my first journey down the river, I have joined many other rivers.  In some of them, there are large dame.  When I run into one of these, I often sit for weeks on end and sometimes evaporate.  Other time, I am funneled through a machine that uses me and my friends to turn wheels.  What I have told you is the story of a water molecule.  It is the story of my journey.

My requirements for her writing are just that she shows me that she learned about the topic she was studying.  I think this paper does that nicely.