Resources by TEMI

Gelli baff

Gelli Baff, a crystalline powder, has been dumped into a bathtub filled with water. How can you force the hydrogel to go down the plughole in order to drain the bathtub? 

In this investigation, students learn about swelling reactions, balanced reactions, and polymerisation. Students should be able to...

Grit on the streets

In the context of finding out why we grit roads in winter, students are shown what happens when salt is sprinkled onto ice lollies.  They are then asked If they believe that the temperature of the ice lolly with the salt will increase or decrease, causing it to melt faster. Students then investigate some...

Guess the colour

In this resource students are challenged to answer a mystery about colour.   They investigate the additive and subtractive synthesis of coloured pigments and explore what coloured objects look like under different coloured lights.
 

How using mysteries supports science learning

Teaching Enquiry with Mysteries Incorporated (TEMI) intends to prepare students for enquiry-based learning by introducing them to challenging and fascinating phenomena. TEMI resources make use of unknown and uncommon observations as mysteries for students to solve.  This resource looks at what makes a good mystery...

Leaking bag

This mystery can be used to introduce osmosis and diffusion. 

Two beakers are displayed at the front of the room. Both look identical in that they both contain a plastic zip--lock bag with a starch solution inside. The zip-lock bags are both sitting in a clear solution. What the students don’t know is that...

Murder of the jeweller

The mystery revolves round a detective story which the students gradually solve. A jeweller has been murdered: the suspects are his metal suppliers but the motive and the culprit are initially unknown.

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Mysterious atom

This activity uses Rutherford’s gold foil experiment to show how a scientist carried out an experiment to test a theory and how the unexpected results led to the proposal of a new one.  Students carry out a process of observe, hypothesise, test and conclude in order to work out what a mystery object is.

Mysterious eggs

In this mystery, students make a hypothesis based on the old saying that a rotten egg floats when put in fresh water, and fresh eggs sink.   This is a good investigation to discuss margin of ...

Mystery of Gibraltar

Students...

Red moon

Students investigate why the moon turns red during a lunar eclipse by exploring refraction, dispersion and the scattering of white light through different media.