An activity with mystery bags encourage students to make observations and gather evidence as they learn the contents of the bag. Students will use their prior knowledge and the new knowledge gained through their observation to infer what is inside each bag.

Materials for multiple bags:

• One brown paper bag (or box) per group

• Stapler or tape

• Common materials found at home or at school, such as:

  • Unsharpened pencils

  • Empty soda cans

  • Marbles in a tin can

  • Golf ball

  • Crumpled paper

  • A paper towel dipped in vanilla extract and left to dry

Place one or two items in each bag. Attempt to pair items that create interesting sounds, textures or smells when paired together. For example, a marble in an Altoids container will make a unique sound when students shake the bag. Once the items are in the bag, staple or tape the bag shut.

Instruction

Provide one mystery bag per group. Tell students that they will attempt to describe the inside of the mystery bag to the best of their ability without looking in the bag and without destroying the bag.

Students get 10 minutes to explore the contents of the bag in groups. At the ten minute mark, bring the groups back together and ask what strategies each group has used. List the strategies on the board. Provide the students an additional 15 minutes to explore the contents of the bag.

Once time is up, ask students to use inferences to draw the contents of their mystery bag on a piece of paper.

When the drawings are done, each group shares their findings with the rest of the class.

If you need to keep the bags sealed for another group, take a photograph of the contents of each bag to share with the students instead. This way, students can confirm their inferences. Alternatively, do not tell students the content of the mystery bags. After all, scientists are not always able to discover the "correct answer" at the end of their observations!