Mystery Science provides ready-made science mysteries for elementary school students. Each lesson contains a central mystery, discussion questions, supplemental reading, and a hands-on activity. It offers open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science. The hook, visuals, and activity have all been prepared for you.

Mystery Science contains a large number of high-interest, ready-made science lessons, on subjects from biology to astronomy to geology. Teachers select the lesson they would like to use and simply hit “play.” Lessons are organized by grade level.

Each lesson is organized around a key question (e.g. “What happens when plates move along a fault?”) The lesson starts with a short introductory video, laying out the lesson’s key question. The video is followed by discussion questions for the class. Finally, the lesson ends with a hands-on activity designed to help students find the answer to the key question. Each activity comes with instructions and a list of materials needed.

There are two kinds of lessons in Mystery Science, regular lessons and mini lessons. While regular lessons vary in length, they start with a 15-minute anchor or exploration, then segue into a 30-45 minute guided student inquiry, and then finish with an activity that could be anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. There is also an additional piece called Mystery Doug. In the Mystery Science website environment there is a link called "Ask Doug" that allows students to ask about any science questions they may have. Doug (Mystery Doug) sends out an email each week with one question he has selected to answer that week. It is in the form of a "mini lesson" which includes an eight minute exploration and a 25 minute hands-on topic.

Mystery Science offers extension activities that include discussion questions and an additional activity. Only teachers need access to the website as they can show the video through their classroom projector or interactive screen. For remote learning , the videos contain links to be sent out through Google Classroom or Seesaw. In Seesaw, click the picture and look for the small link icon, generally in the lower left corner.

Mystery Science is now part of Discovery Education. To access your account, log into Clever and click the Discovery Education icon. When it opens, scroll down to the bottom and your curriculum packs will show. Elementary teachers should have at least two - Mystery Science and Coding.