Series

Mystery Science

26 episodes

Video lessons from Mystery Science, each built around a question a child would actually ask: could a statue's shadow move? Where can you find whales in a desert? How could you send a secret message to someone far away? The video sets up the puzzle, walks students through observations and evidence, and lands on a hands-on activity. Coverage runs across K-5 science (weather and natural hazards, energy and motion, fossils, animal behavior, chemical reactions), plus short mini-lessons on what scientists actually do all day. Better for opening a unit than for reviewing one.

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what this series covers

What Mystery Science covers

26 episodes in the library, tagged for K–5th. Heaviest coverage: Science. Between them they line up with 18 distinct standards across 1 framework.

Episodes per grade

K: 10
1st: 9
2nd: 8
3rd: 10
4th: 10
5th: 9

Episodes per subject

Science: 26

NGSS (Science) 18

3-5-ETS1-1Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
1-ESS1-1Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted.
3-5-ETS1-2Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
4-LS1-1Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
K-LS1-1Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
1-PS4-4Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.

+ 12 more

2-ESS2-2Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.
2-LS4-1Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
3-ESS3-1Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.
3-LS4-1Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.
3-LS4-3Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
4-PS3-1Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
4-PS3-3Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.
5-PS1-3Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
5-PS1-4Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.
K-2-ETS1-1Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
K-ESS2-1Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.
K-PS2-1Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.