This standard lesson on identifying salt and sugar crystals expands into an opportunity for students to develop their observation, questioning, and modeling skills. Although sugar and salt may look similar, students discovered that they looked very different under a magnifying glass and behaved differently when dissolved in water. In addition, students' curiosity was piqued when the lesson was started by reading "Two Bad Ants" (Van Allsburg 1988), the story of two ants trekking across dangerous terrain to bring sugar crystals back to their queen. (Contains 2 figures, 3 resources and 3 online resources.)