Science Sleuth

One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science and One Minute Mysteries: 65 MORE Mysteries You Solve With Science Eric Yoder is a writer and editor who has been published in a variety of magazines, newspapers, newsletters and online publications on science, government, law, business, sports and other topics. He has contributed to or edited numerous books, mainly in the areas of employee benefits and financial planning. A reporter at The Washington Post who also does freelance writing and editing, he was a member of the Advisory Committee for Science, Naturally's 101 Things Everyone Should Know About Science. He and his wife Patti have two daughters, Natalie and Valerie. Eric can be reached at Eric@ScienceNaturally.com. Natalie Yoder is a college student whose favorite subjects include psychology, science, and photography. A sports enthusiast, she participates in gymnastics, field hockey, diving, soccer, and track. She also enjoys writing, being with friends and family, and listening to music. She has been interviewed several times, along with her father, on National Public Radio to talk about their work on their One Minute Mysteries series: 65 Short Stories You Solve With Science! and 65 Short Stories You Solve With Math! She looks forward to writing more books. She is thinking about studying for careers in oceanography or photography. She can be reached at Natalie@ScienceNaturally.com.

The Science Sleuth Book Set Contains 2 books and these are their Table of Contents: Table of Contents for 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science ISBN 13: 978-0-9678020-1-5 INTRODUCTIONS Why I Wrote This BookEric 11 Why I Wrote This BookNatalie 13 Life Science 15 1. Classified Information 17 2. Food for Thought 19 3. Bear Scare 21 4. The Horse's Fodder 23 5. Left in the Dark 25 6. Bugged by an Assignment 27 7. It's in the Blood 29 8. Seed of an Idea 31 9. Shell Game 33 10. A Question of Identity 35 11. Turning Over a New Leaf 37 12. The Pupil and the Pupae 39 13. A Fishy Solution 41 14. A Fair Contest 43 15. Hair Style 45 Earth and Space Science 47 16. Cloudy on the Concept 49 17. Shadow of a Doubt 51 18. Freeze Fall 53 19. Time for a Change 55 20. Stars in Their Eyes 57 21. Rain or Shine 59 22. Space Ship-Shape 61 23. Sight at Night 63 24. In Hot Water 65 25. Sands of Time 67 26. Falling Foliage 69 27. The Best-Laid Planets 71 28. That Snow Problem 73 29. Battle of the Bulge 75 30. Taking Directions 77 Physical and Chemical Science 79 31. Grass Stained 81 32. Faded Memory 83 33. Taken with a Grain of Salt 85 34. Double Dealing 87 35. Cabin Fever 89 36. Pumpkin Patch 91 37. Thirst for Knowledge 93 38. Gem Jam 95 39. Hearing Aide 97 40. Too Hot to Handle 99 41. Storm Warning 101 42. Fingering the Culprit 103 43. Slow Burn 105 44. It Works Like Magic 107 45. Hide and Seek 109 General Science 111 46. Needing a Lift 113 47. Water, Water Everywhere 115 48. Shocking Surprise 117 49. Stuck with the Mud 119 50. Valentine Vexation 121 51. Language Barrier 123 52. Powerful Argument 125 53. Nothing to Sneeze At 127 54. Lights Out 129 55. Salad Days 131 56. Bird Watching 133 57. Raked Over the Coals 135 58. Picture This 137 59. Weight Debate 139 60. Alarming Situation 141 BONUS SECTION Five More Minutes of Mysteries! 143 1. Water on the Brain 145 2. Pointing Out the Facts 147 3. Thrown a Curve 149 4. The Long Run 151 5. Occupational Hazards 153 Discover One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Math! 155 1. Cereal Numbers 157 2. Jumping Through Hoops 159 3. Flooring Them 161 4. Toss-Up 163 5. Paper Chase 165 Index 169 Photo and Illustration Credits 172 About the Authors 173 Table of Contents for One Minute Mysteries: 65 MORE Short Mysteries You Science ISBN 13: 978-1-938492-00-6 INTRODUCTIONS Why I Wrote This BookEric 11 Why I Wrote This BookNatalie 13 Life Science 15 1. Cool as a Cucumber 17 2. Whale of a Time 19 3. Back to Nature 21 4. The Root of the Situation 23 5. Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me 25 6. Think Outside the Box 27 7. Now You See It 29 8. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow 31 9. Egging Him On 33 10. One Good Turn 35 11. Horsing Around 37 12. Life Line 39 13. Order in the Courtyard 41 14. Put Your Back Into It 43 15. Sweating It Out 45 Earth and Space Science 47 16. It's All Alien to Me 49 17. Where in the World? 51 18. Up in the Air 53 19. A Good Look 55 20. Take a Hike 57 21. Think Green, Guys! 59 22. Soil Solution 61 23. Make a Wish 63 24. Don't Rain On My Parade 65 25. Ship Shape 67 26. Ups and Downs 69 27. Room for More? 71 28. Sundae Skies 73 29. On Top of the World 75 30. Clothes Call 77 Physical and Chemical Science 79 31. A Half-Baked Idea 81 32. True Colors 83 33. Tennis, Anyone? 85 34. Flying High 87 35. Eggcellent Idea 89 36. A Girl's Best Friend 91 37. Tea Trouble for Two 93 38. Finding a Solution 95 39. Drafty Days 97 40. Tricks with Bricks 99 41. The Tune-Up 101 42. Fire in the Hole 103 43. Statues on Wheels 105 44. Making Light of a Problem 107 45. The Reverberating Roar 109 General Science 111 46. Halloween Hippie 113 47. Weighting Game 115 48. Pooling Their Thoughts 117 49. Science Friction 119 50. To Catch a Chill 121 51. Silver, Where? 123 52. Court Code 125 53. Home on the Range 127 54. Time for a Change 129 55. Don't Let the Bugs Bite 131 56. A Floating Idea 133 57. Water on the Mind 135 58. Fill 'er Up 137 59. Rocks and Roles 139 60. Weight Off Your Back 141 Five More Minutes of Mysteries! 143 1. A Merry Experience 145 2. Clearing the Air 147 3. Oldies and Goodies 149 4. Keep a Balanced Diet 151 5. Tanks a Lot 153 Bonus Section: One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Math! 155 1. All Wound Up 157 2. Chute in the Works 159 3. Ace of Clubs 161 4. Cold Blooded Calculations 163 5. And They Call This a Fair? 165 Photo and Illustration Credits 168 Index 169 About the Authors 173

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 This is a fantastic book for quizzing students during the last 10 minutes of class or as a transition activity. The resource section at the back of the book offers fabulous ideas and resources for budding scientists, and the index is very helpful. It can be used for a review after a unit of study, to supplement a unit of study, or to extend a unit of study. Overall, it would be a great addition to any classroom library! -- Tracy Alley, Teacher & Coordinator of Gifted Programs Madeira City Schools & Adjunct Professor, University of Cincinnati 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 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