Hi there! I’m Doug, and today I’m going to show you something special. Usually, I talk to you on video, but today, let’s take a peek behind the scenes to see how we make our fun science videos. Are you ready? Let’s go!
Our company is called Mystery Science, and we love creating exciting science lessons. We know you have lots of questions about the world, like “Why is the sky blue?” or “Can a turtle live without its shell?” Instead of just giving you the answers, we show you how people discovered them. We also ask you questions along the way to help you think and learn.
Many people ask me, “Doug, how do you know all these answers?” Well, I love science and have been curious my whole life. But I don’t know everything! I get lots of help from my friends at Mystery Science. Sarah helps with research and writing, while Amy and Kelly find all the cool pictures and videos we use.
Every lesson starts with a question. For example, we recently asked, “Why are tornadoes so hard to predict?” To find the answer, I read books and look up information online. Sarah takes notes and writes a script for me to read. But we also need to decide what to show in the video. That’s where Kelly and Amy come in. They create a storyboard, which is like a plan for what you’ll see on screen.
Once we have the script and storyboard, Kelly and Amy gather all the pictures and videos we need. Sometimes they even make new ones! Then, they put everything in order, and I record my voice while clicking through the slideshow. A simple button press turns it into a video, and we upload it to our website for you to watch!
This year, we’ve made lots of mini lessons and answered over 250,000 questions from kids all around the world. You can watch all our videos on MysteryScience.com, where we also have full-length lessons.
Thanks to Amaya for asking how we make our videos. We have a special activity for you to create your own Mystery Doug mini lesson. Check out the link at the end of the video!
For our next episode, I have three questions you can vote on: “Are unicorns real?” “How does a kite stay in the air?” or “Why do you sweat when you play sports?” Let us know which one you want to learn about!
Remember, there are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next time!
Create Your Own Mini Lesson: Just like Doug and his team, you can create your own mini science lesson! Choose a question you are curious about, like “Why do leaves change color in the fall?” or “How do birds fly?” With the help of a parent or teacher, research the answer using books or the internet. Then, draw a storyboard with pictures showing what you learned. Share your mini lesson with your class or family!
Science Detective: Go on a “science detective” walk around your neighborhood or school. Look for things that make you curious, like a strange-looking plant or an interesting cloud shape. Write down your observations and questions. Later, try to find answers to your questions by asking an adult, looking in a book, or searching online. Share your findings with your classmates!
Question of the Day: Each day, think of a new question about the world around you. It could be something like, “Why do cats purr?” or “What makes rainbows?” Write your question on a piece of paper and put it in a “Question Jar.” At the end of the week, pick one question from the jar and work with your family or friends to find the answer. Discuss what you learned and why it was interesting!
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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– (phone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug! Normally I talk to you like this. But today, I thought I’d show you a different view. This is where I record. Come on in! I know many of you are curious about how we make videos. Someone named Amaya has a question about how we do things around here. Let’s give her a call now. (phone ringing) – Hi Doug! – Hi Amaya! – I have a question for you. How do you make a Mystery Doug video? – That’s a great question. The company I work at is called Mystery Science. We spend every day creating fun science lessons and mini lessons. We know how curious you are about so many different things, so our goal is to help answer the real questions that you have. Questions like, why is the sky blue? Or, could a turtle live outside of its shell? But rather than just telling you the answers, we try to show you how people figured it out, and along the way, we usually pause to ask questions to give you a chance to figure things out for yourself.
Let’s do that now. One of the questions I get asked a lot is, “Doug, how do you answer all these questions? Do you just have to know all this stuff?” What do you think? How do you think I’m able to answer all these questions? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss. Okay, you ready? Well, I do love science, and I know a lot about it because I’ve spent most of my life being curious. I’ve asked lots of questions. But I definitely don’t know everything. For example, each lesson and mini lesson that we make, I get a lot of help from my friends here at Mystery Science. Sarah does research and writing, and Amy and Kelly find all the visuals. That means all the pictures and video clips that we show you.
With each lesson and mini lesson that we make, we always start with a question. For example, we recently created a mini lesson to answer the question, “Why are tornadoes so hard to predict?” Once we know what question we’re doing, I start to do research, which usually means a lot of reading. I usually start by looking at books. When I was reading about tornadoes, I read the section on Tornado Alley. I’ll also look up information from the internet, like on websites from the National Severe Storms Laboratory.
Sarah takes notes on what she finds out, and then she uses those notes to create a script, a written page of what she thinks I should say aloud. At this point, we have an answer to the question. But there’s something huge still missing. We need to figure out what we’re going to show in the video. That’s where Kelly and Amy come in. They start by doing what’s called storyboarding. It’s what movie makers do when they’re trying to figure out what to show on screen during each scene of a movie.
So Kelly and I come up with ideas of what to show for each part of the script that Sarah and I write. Like here, I found some amazing video of a tornado ripping the roof off a house, just to show you how dangerous they can be. After the script is storyboarded, Kelly and Amy have to go and find all the pictures and videos we need. Sometimes they wind up creating new visuals themselves. Then they put all those visuals into a slideshow with everything in order just like it is in the script. That’s the point where it’s pretty much ready for me to record my voice. I read the script aloud as I click through the slideshow. A simple push of a button turns that recording into a video which we upload to our website, and voila, it’s ready for you to watch.
This has been the first year of our mini lessons, Mystery Doug, and it’s been so fun. We’ve had over 250,000 questions sent to us by students from all around the world. We wish we could answer all of them, and maybe one day we will, but each week, these are the questions we choose from when deciding what to talk about. So far, we’ve done almost 50 mini lessons. You can watch all of them on MysteryScience.com, where we also have our full-length science lessons.
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Amaya, for asking it. Now we have something special for you this week. My friends and I here at Mystery Science have created a step-by-step activity to show you how you can create your own Mystery Doug mini lesson. You can find a link to the activity at the end of this video.
Okay, for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and found three questions submitted to me that I’m thinking about answering. When this video’s done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from, “Are unicorns real?” “How does a kite stay in the air?” or “Why do you sweat when you play sports?” So submit your vote when the video’s over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
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