We describe an intriguing genre of assignment in which students respond to a fake scientific paper by designing an experiment to test its claims. Put another way, we ask students to be experimentalists, albeit in an artificially controlled and prescribed domain; we hope that through this, students get a better picture of what science is about and why we are asking them to learn the material. As one might predict, many students are perplexed by this assignment, and many responses are weak. Nevertheless, their performance illuminates aspects of student (mis)understanding, and suggests directions for curriculum and assessment.