Mystery Science offers a curriculum of video clues, discussions, and hands-on experiments that let elementary teachers address students' real questions and facilitate inquiry-based science lessons. The service is free for the first year and then available via a paid membership. The startup says teachers in more than 10% of U.S. elementary schools use Mystery Science on a monthly basis—about 10,000 schools. Founded in 2014 and based in San Francisco, the company is participating in Y Combinator and will graduate from the accelerator in August. Mystery Science has a team of 18 and plans to use new capital to add more schools and grow its team. To date the company has raised $2.9 million. Mystery Science is a web-based educational platform that combines short videos, classroom discussion prompts, and hands-on projects to inspire kids to love science. Its lessons target 3rd and 4th graders and are aligned with Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards to supplement existing curriculum. Most lessons include four two-minute videos that teachers play and pause for discussion, followed by an activity video; the company produces all videos with Doug Peltz narrating. Co-founders Keith Schacht (formerly a Facebook product manager) and Doug Peltz (formerly LePort Schools' science director) built the product after a pilot with a dozen elementary teachers and a dozen homeschool teachers. Teachers receive one free unit; pricing for remaining lessons has yet to be determined. Mystery Science operates as a small team based in San Francisco and has raised $500,000 in seed funding.

Total raised

$3M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Jun 2017