Every college student has heard it before: If your roommate dies, you get straight A's for the semester. Truth, or just a false tale?

Urban legends abound, some as far-fetched as they come — Elvis lives — others a little more convincing — if you drop a penny off the Empire State building it will kill a person on the ground below. But whether fact or solely fiction, people love to tell them.

"Urban legends are really a contemporary version of folklore," said Jason Dennison, Instructional Technologies Educator for the Milwaukee Public Museum. "It's just passing stories down from one cultural group to another."

Many of the tales involve horrific events and frightening characters — the stranger and more mystifying the better. "The term 'urban legend' originated in the 1940s and 1950s," Dennison said. "Most happened in the city because the big city was still a place where there were a lot of unknowns. They took the idea of cultural oral traditions and sort of spiced it up a little bit, made it a little more shocking, a little scarier; it has to be something that is very captivating. In order for an urban legend to become what it is, there has to be some basis in fact so that it could actually happen."

Which makes one wonder: just how much fact is in each little legend? College of Communication junior Shannon Schaekel said the first myth that pops into her mind involves fast food, one that anyone would hope is false.

"People always refer to Taco Bell, and say there's cockroach eggs in the ground beef," Schaekel said. "If you eat there, (the cockroaches) can get in your tongue and in your stomach."

Recently, popular television shows like MTV's "Big Urban Myth" and the Discovery Channel's "MythBusters" have embarked on a journey to demystify various legends by exploring the validity of each story.

While "Big Urban Myth" doesn't always deal with the most important subjects — did P. Diddy tell Avril Lavigne she wouldn't be successful because she doesn't wear the right clothes? — "MythBusters" takes a more scientific approach, with its heroes Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman actually testing out the myths to get to the real truth.

Nora Pilak, a sophomore in the College of Communication, became a mythbuster herself when she set out to discover the truth behind a popular legend while in high school.

As legend has it (and as Pilak tells it), there exists a place called Haunchyville off Mystic Road in Muskego. Many years ago, near this town, a man committed suicide; written on his barn in blood was the phrase, "The haunchies made me do it. The haunchies made me do it." Off the same road as the man's barn is a rusty gate leading to Haunchyville. If you pass through the gate supposedly a sensor will detect your presence and the gate will lock, preventing you from getting out. Once inside, the haunchies appear, attacking you with burning torches. Pilak and a group of friends decided to find Haunchyville late one night, only successful after their second attempt.

"You have to go down this long drive with all of these trees," Pilak said. "We scared ourselves silly. We went once and we were pretty much crying; but we went back."

What did they find?

"Everything is little," Pilak said. "The houses were regular size but the front doors were smaller and the mailboxes. Every single house had it's light on. It looked like a community for little people. But we didn't see anyone — we broke the urban legend."

Like Pilak and Mythbusters, the Milwaukee Public Museum will also attempt to get to the bottom of several legends this Saturday and Sunday during the family event "Adventure Weekend: Bad Science."

"Students come in (to the museum) with misconceptions about science, what it is, how it's conducted," Dennison said. "They see movies like 'Frankenstein' and think that experiments are just something with lots of electricity. We will try to debunk urban legends by using the scientific method to disprove them."

Pop Rocks and soda will be on hand to show that simultaneously consuming the two will not cause your stomach to explode. The actual chemical reaction will be explained and those in attendance will be able to try out the combination themselves.

Overall, the event has largely been created for younger students.

"It's bringing a critical eye to looking at science," Dennison said. "The hope for the weekend is to show that we're an institution that takes science seriously. We're an active research institute. The science going on behind the scenes is good science, well-researched and ethical."

As for the If-my-roommate-dies-I-get-straight-A's legend? Well, let's just hope your roommate doesn't test it out.