Children are born curious.
Children are naturally curious. Elementary school years are the time to nurture that curiosity. These are the years when children form habits of thinking that will live with them for the rest of their lives. This is when they form their view of the world. This is the time to teach children how to think critically, how to solve problems. This is the opportunity to nurture each child’s burning curiosity, guide them as they explore their world, and ensure that they develop the most important skill of all: the ability to figure things out for themselves.
Elementary teachers need support.
Teachers are in a position to inspire a lifetime of curiosity. In elementary schools, multi-subject teachers are expected to cover everything from reading, writing, and math to science, social studies, art, and more. It’s hard to be an expert in every subject. And it takes a lot of time! Teachers need to prepare for lessons, organize supplies, manage a class with 25 or more students, and handle a wide range of other responsibilities. In a restaurant analogy, they plan the menu, do the shopping, prep, cook, and serve. They have to do it all!
We make learning a “wow” experience for kids and teachers.
We create content that excites children about the wow in the world around them. We craft explanations around real kid questions. We view ourselves as storytellers: we invest in motivating our explanations and bringing them to life with wow visuals. We see kids as active explorers who learn not by listening and consuming, but by discussing, by building and observing hands-on models, and by writing about what they learn. Success is when kids can’t wait for the next Mystery lesson—and when they go home to enthusiastically share with the adults at home the cool things they learned at school.
Being an elementary teacher is one of the most important and hardest jobs. Teachers are at their best when they can focus on helping kids. That’s why we make prep easy, put expert virtual co-teachers into each classroom, and build classroom management tools right into our lessons. We want to make teaching fun because happy teachers who enjoy their work are the best teachers kids can have!
Our ultimate goal is to ensure that the next generation of children grow up and see that it’s an amazing world we live in, full of possibility and wonder—and that they develop the ability to figure things out for themselves.
Not only are the lessons engaging, but my students are retaining what they are learning! Goodbye textbooks : ) Thanks again for serving this next generation of scientists!”
—Jen, 5th grade teacher
Our story
In 2014, the first teacher tested Mystery Science, a product our founders created to provide better explanations for young children. Within just four years, it became the most popular elementary science curriculum in the US. In 2020, Mystery Science became part of the Discovery Education family. Today, the Mystery Science team, within Discovery Education, develops the Mystery Science product, serving several hundred thousand teachers, reaching millions of students each month. But we’re far from done: we want to bring the delight of Mystery to more kids and teachers—in the US and abroad. As Mystery grows, we're investing in building new products in new subjects beyond science.
Try a Mystery Science lesson!
What teachers say about
Mystery Science
