I Love a Mystery

Reviews / Votes

Few things zap the fun out of math quicker than a worksheet full of numbers. The mysteries in 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Math! are word problems that stress cross-curricular reading comprehension, Core Curriculum focused real-world application and a hint of out-of-the-box thinking. They engage students and make math fun! These books are some of the most engaging nonfiction books I have ever read! They correlate so well with our science curriculum and the Common Core State Standards. The reason we love them is because they have real-world applications. With Mississippi adopting the new Common Core State Standards, using nonfiction texts is very important. Science, Naturally!'s books are an excellent asset to our teachers' resource libraries! -- Sonya Smith, Science Coordinator, ATOMS2XP (Advancing Teachers of Middle School Science) and IMPACT2 (In-depth Mathematical Practices and Content Teacher Training), Miss. State, MS Encouraging critical thinking skills, it teaches children to think quickly and scientifically. One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! is a highly recommended purchase for science teachers who want to introduce a bit of extra fun into the classroom. -- Willis M. Buhle, Reviewer, Buhle's Bookshelf Many kids equate math with drudgery, but this book skillfully meshes humor and excitement with challenging problems. While kids have fun and solve the mysteries, they actually develop important deductive reasoning skills that they will use throughout their lives. One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve with Math! helps kids discover and experience the joys of math! -- Rachel Connelly, Ph. D., Bion R. Cram Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, NJ I have been using your first One Minute Mysteries book as BRAIN activities with my 6th grade science class. It has been such a hit! The students love them because they are challenging-puzzles to be solved with their peers. They compete enthusiastically to solve each mystery before their classmates. I love them because each mystery kick-starts their brains into a critical thinking, problem solving mode in just minutes at the beginning of each class. The scenarios stimulate wonderful scientific debates among my students. They are a fun strategy for the students to apply their science knowledge to real world problems. This next book is as riveting as the original! I look forward to adding it to my classroom resources. Thanks again for creating this wonderful addition to science teaching and learning! -- Margie Hawkins, 6th Grade Science Teacher, Winfree Bryant MS, Lebanon, TN, NSTA STEM Forum and Expo Steering Committee Science teachers will thank you for having this book in your collection! Readers will be lured by the catchy story titles and short mysteries that cover wide variety of science themes in Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical and Chemical Science, and General Science. The science content is woven into the story seamlessly, while keeping the stories to a page length. With the Common Core Standards requiring reading and writing across the subject areas, this book is perfect. The stories provide a wonderful opportunity to use content knowledge and critical thinking skills to construct a response. The captivating stories will encourage even the most reluctant reader. This is a great read for kids who love science as well as a valuable resource for teachers. -- Pamela K. Simmons, Library Media Specialist, Penn Ya, New York Library Media Connection, Recommended Review I Love a Mystery Set Math and Science One Minute MysteriesI have found a new gem for our homeschool. We have recently had the opportunity to review the I Love a Mystery Set from Educents. This is a set of 3 books by Eric Yoder and Natalie Yoder called 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! (for ages 8-12) , 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Math! (for ages 10-14), and 65 More Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! (for ages 8-12).They are part of a series called One Minute Mysteries. Here is how the books work: You read a mystery story that's all on one page. Then you turn the page to read the solution to the mystery. Each solution page contains a photograph or graphic as well. And every story is teaching and reinforcing an important science or math concept. The stories are fun and engaging. What a brilliant way to teach!My 9-year-old son loves math and science, as well as reading mysteries. I figured these books would be right up his alley. And, they are! He would often come and tell me something fascinating he learned-like why ice freezes on a bridge before it does on the ground.Why the Books Were Written:These unique books were written by dad Eric with his daughter Natalie. They both have a passion for science and for writing and after living daily life where Eric tried to use mysteries to emphasize the widespread, real-life applications" of science and math, they decided to write down their made up mystery stories into a book. And then into 3 books!Awards:It's obvious my son and I aren't the only ones who love the One Minute Mysteries books. The books have received distinctions and won awards such as: International Book Awards Finalist, recommended by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book, Creative Child Magazine 2013 Book of the Year Award, National Parenting Publications Award winner, and Brain Child Tillywig Toy Award winner.Ways we Used it in Our Homeschool:1. I assigned one of the books to my 9-year-old son to read for silent reading time. He also read some of the mysteries for fun at night before bed!2. I used it in our couch time" group lesson time. This is a time when I read aloud and do lessons with all my elementary kids at one time. Their grades are K, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th. It's a breeze to read a few mysteries of science and math every day.3. I used it in place of regular science lessons on some days. It can also be a great supplement to science lessons if you are studying one of the subjects (life science, astronomy, earth science, chemistry, etc.) in the books.What We Liked:The stories are really short, and are intriguing because they are mysteries. It was a game for all of us to try to figure out the answer before we turned the page to read. I also loved that there were so many different subjects covered. The stories were fun and can be related to real life, such as calculating distance in the toll road traffic ticket mystery and understanding probability in the rolling of the dice mystery.Contents:One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science- 15 Life Science mysteries (classification, bears, horses, bugs, shells, fish)- 15 Earth and Space Science mysteries (clouds, freezing, rain, sight at night, planets)- 15 Physical and Chemical Science mysteries (grass, pumpkins, gems, heat)- 15 General Science mysteries (water, mud, language, sneezing, bird watching)- 5 More Science Mysteries- Bonus: 5 Math Mysteries (a preview of the book 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Math)65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Math- 15 Math At Home mysteries (toll road, rolling dice, pancakes)- Math Outside mysteries (lawns, fences, holes, hiking)- 15 Math at Play mysteries (jumping through hoops, perfect 10, parade)- 15 Math Every Day mysteries (rows and columns, clock, volume, overdue)- 5 More Math mysteries- Bonus: 5 mysteries from the book 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science- Bonus: 5 things from the book 101 Things Everyone Should Know About Math65 More Short Mysteries you Solve With Science- 15 Life Science mysteries (cucumbers, whales, roots, flies)- 15 Earth and Space Science mysteries (aliens, air, soil)- 15 Physical and Chemical Science mysteries (color, bricks, light)- 15 General Science mysteries (weight, chill, change, floating)- Bonus: 5 More Science Mysteries- Bonus: 5 Math Mysteries (a preview of the book 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Math)These books are part of a company called Science, Naturally!. In addition to the I Love a Mystery set they sell some other great books which are available at Educents for low prices like:If My Mom Were a Platypus: Mammal Babies and Their MothersLeonardo da Vinci Gets a Do-OverThe League of Scientists: Ghost in the Water101 Things Everyone Should Know About Math101 Things Everyone Should Know About ScienceBe sure to follow Science, Naturally! on Facebook and Twitter.(Disclosure: I received the I Love a Mystery Set and monetary compensation in exchange for this completely honest review.) -- Gena Mayo, Homeschooling Mom, Blogger I Choose Joy Blog, April 25, 2016 Got a Minute for a Mystery?Let's face it. Making learning fun can be tough. Sometimes it's just easier to say...'Sit down and just memorize these math facts" than it is to find a unique and fun way to help kids remember these facts. Sometimes my brain gets tired of searching for exciting ways to make learning fun...but the truth is that if you can create an environment where kids love to learn, they will thrive!Recently, I happened across a neat way to make Science and Math more exciting and fun! Everyone loves a good mystery, right? Well put some short mysteries stories together with Math and Science and you've got some great resources that kids will love. They are known as: One Minute Mysteries. Science, Naturally has put together several books filled with short mysteries that each have a clever twist to them. The stories themselves take only one minute to read and in order to solve them you and your kids will need to tap into your science or math wisdom! I tried a few myself and they were a lot of fun. The stories were short, yet captivating and the answers (which are on the back of each story page) are challenging enough to get your brain actively thinking, yet easy enough that I could figure most of them out if I thought about it long enough. There are several different books available right now including One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science, One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Math and One Minute Mysteries: 65 More Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! Science, Naturally has also just released a new bilingual One Minute Mysteries book which has each story in both English and Spanish! The books are written by a father/daughter team, which I think is really neat!One Minute Mysteries are entertaining and educational and are great books for kids, grown-ups, educators and really anyone who loves a good mystery with a purpose! They really are a great way to learn more about math and science and to have fun doing it! My son enjoys math, science, reading and mysteries so you can imagine that the One Minute Mystery books were an instant hit with him! I'm hoping that our daughter also will enjoy them as topics such as science and math don't come quite as easily for her...and this is a fabulously fun way to get important concepts into their growing minds! -- Andrea, Blogger Glimpse, September 8, 2018 WASHINGTON, DC It's a typical situation. A mother has to run an errand and leaves a note for her kids telling them to help themselves to lunch. There are eggs in the refrigerator, it says; but, some are hard-boiled and others are raw...and they look the same. How can the kids tell which is which without cracking them open?The students in the fifth grade science class at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. have to think scientifically to solve the mystery. Samadhi says she had to try more than one idea to differentiate between the eggs.It was kind of difficult, but it was fun too," she explains. You get to do things yourself. You need to try new things, you don't have to do what the teacher tells you. You get to try stuff that you think might work for what you're doing."Samadhi discovered that spinning the eggs solved the mystery. Raw eggs spin more slowly than hard-boiled ones because the liquid inside slows them down.Think, solve and learnThis puzzler - The Eggcellent Idea - is one of 65 in the "One Minute Mysteries" educational series. Each mystery takes about a minute and half to read and requires students to solve it using their math and science knowledge. Mundo Verde teacher Karen Geating Rivera notes that the series was created by Eric and Natalie Yoder, a father-daughter pair. And when they were first written, the daughter was still a middle schooler. So it's not just written for children, but it was actually written in part by the child herself."Every single mystery is written with characters that are children, and children that are facing real world situation that they need to solve using their background knowledge on math and science," she explains. So they're not expected to have a bunch of formulas in their head that they already know. It's just things that happen every day and that you just think from a scientific or mathematical perspective to resolve."WATCH: Video report on project: http://www.voanews.com/a/minute-mysteries/3628608.html'Minute Mysteries' Help Kids Solve Math, Science Problems0:03:120:00:00/0:03:12Science teacher David Levin says the mysteries get the children excited. If they enjoy what they're doing, they will learn. That's my philosophy. I like having the opportunity of having them in small groups, sharing their ideas, feeling the experiment in their hands."Kids have also to discuss the facts among each other before declaring the answer. Ten-year-old Dante finds these group discussions useful. You might come to an agreement," he says. You might come to disagreement. But sometimes once you share your opinions, you can find out which one is the right response and which one isn't."Creating learning opportunitiesThe latest addition to the series is bilingual: English and Spanish. The authors are trying to provide a resource for dual-language education, which is a growing trend in many schools around the country, including Mundo Verde. School instructional guide, Berenice Pernalete says having bilingual instructions helps the students who come from different backgrounds. I think that for a language immersion school, one of the things that teachers do in order to foster engagement in students and to be really creative is that they have shared experiences."Teacher Karen Geating Rivera says bringing the mysteries into the classroom allows her students to develop several skills at the same time, and learn from each other. The kids who don't speak Spanish at home, and who are learning Spanish as a second or maybe a third language are able to hear the native speakers in a natural, authentic setting and start picking up some of that language and vice versa," she says. The fact that they are leaving the classroom still talking about what we've done tells me that I really made it an authentic experience, something that they can walk out and continue using in real life."The "One Minute Mysteries" series, she says, is another tool to keep her students engaged and foster their math, science and bilingual skills. -- Faiza Elmasry Voice of America, December 9, 2016