Annie loves cookies. Her parents want her to eat icky things like
kale and tuna fish, but she knows that she can eat only cookies and be just
fine. On a Tuesday afternoon, on the way
back from school, Annie asked her Dad to stop at Lilly’s, which everyone knows makes
the best cookies in town. Her Dad told
her it was too far out of the way.
Lilly’s is on Baker Street, a long walk away from school and in the
opposite direction of home. Why is the
bakery that makes the best cookies so far away?! Why couldn’t Lilly’s be right
next door to her house? Then her Dad
would never have an excuse to skip going there!
Annie talked to her best friend,
Milton, about the problem. Milton
couldn’t come up with an answer. Her
parents were too busy when she asked them.
They are always so busy! So Annie
sat and thought and thought about it. She
didn’t know the answer.
The next day, when she got to visit
Lilly’s, she asked the owner Lilly how bakeries choose where to put their
stores. Lilly said the best cookies are
made near where the nicest children live.
Annie tried being extra nice for a whole week, hoping that a branch of
Lilly’s would open up. But no cookie store opened up nearby. She was so disappointed that she refused to
do her chores, and was given a long time out.
Maybe Lilly had been making fun of her!
She sat and thought more about the
problem. Why wouldn’t a bakery open near
her? Annie compared 11th
Avenue, her street, to Baker Street, where Lily’s bakery is located. She made a list of ways they are different.
11th
Avenue has lots of lawns, where it is fun to play outside after school. Baker Street has no lawns. But why would that explain where cookies are
sold?
11th
Avenue is where lots of people walk their dogs.
Lily’s rarely seen any dogs on Baker Street. But why would that explain where cookies are
sold?
The
buildings are all small houses on 11th Avenue. There are lots of
tall office buildings on Baker Street. But
why would that explain where cookies are sold?
11th
Avenue is always nice and quiet. Her Mom
talks about how, when she visits Uncle Alexander and Aunt Michaela, she can’t
sleep because it is so much noisier in their neighborhood. Baker Street is always really busy. Tons of people are walking up and down Baker
Street whenever Annie is there. It’s
exciting. But why would that explain
where cookies are sold?
Maybe which street is busy could
explain it! Annie remembered from the
summer when she had a lemonade stand how hard it was to sell lemonade when
there were no customers nearby. Annie
figured the more cookies a store could sell, the happier the store owner would
be. Suppose half of the people who walk
by a store decide to buy something there.
Half of the people who walk down 11th Avenue isn’t that many,
which is why when she had her lemonade stand, she still had three-quarters of a
pitcher of lemonade left over at the end of the day. But half of the people walking down Baker
Street would be lots and lots and lots of people. If those people buy cookies, that would be a
lot of cookies!
Annie liked her idea, but was
worried. She remembered how annoying it
was when she was nice for a whole week, and no cookie store appeared
nearby. How could be more sure that
cookie stores locate on busy streets?
Annie decided to look at five
streets with cookie stores, and five streets without cookie stores. If the streets with cookie stores always had
more people walking around than the streets without cookie stores, she would
feel more confident about her idea. But
how could she get the information she needed to test this idea? Hmmm.
Finding streets with cookie stores
was easy. She used a computer to find
cookie stores in her city, and made a list of the streets where first five are
located. The streets are named Baker
Street (where Lilly’s with the best cookies is!), Cocoa Lane, Walnut Loop,
Caramel Court, and Main Street.
Annie didn’t know how to figure out
how busy these streets are, though, or how to pick the other streets with no
cookie stores. There were so many
streets in her city! Which one should
she pick? She asked her Uncle Noah. Luckily, Uncle Noah works for the Mayor, and
has a list of all the streets in the city, and how busy they were. Uncle Noah gave her the list. She picked the first five names of streets on
the list. Their names were Aardvark Lane, Abalone Avenue, Ackerman Street,
Addington Way, and Aeneas Boulevard. She
used a computer to make sure these streets had no cookie stores.
She then listed the two streets in
two columns on a sheet of paper, using different colored crayons depending on
how busy Uncle Noah’s list said they were.
Green means the streets aren’t busy at all. You could lie down on the sidewalk and nobody
would step on you. Yellow is a sort of
busy, maybe a nice place to put a lemonade stand. Red means a street is SUPER busy, like Baker
Street. It’s easy to get lost on Baker
Street if you don’t hold on to your Mom or Dad’s hand!
Here’s the list.
Has a Cookie Store
Baker
Street
Cocoa
Lane
Walnut Loop
Caramel
Court
Main Street
Doesn’t Have a Cookie Store
Aardvark
Lane
Abalone
Avenue
Ackerman
Street
Addington
Way
Aeneas
Boulevard
Annie looked at the list and saw a
pattern. The colors made it so easy! So many of the streets are green, meaning not
so busy, where there was no cookie store.
Almost none of the streets that have cookie stores were green. In fact, they are mostly red, meaning they
were SUPER busy.
Annie was so excited that she
showed her list to her teacher, who was very impressed. She asked Annie to give an oral report on her
work to class. At the end of the oral
report, what do you think happened?
Annie got the most wonderful gift from her teacher. A cookie from Lilly’s!
