Essy
The Mysterious Atom Box
Scientists can’t always see the things they’re trying to understand. So how can they possibly know what’s there?
Essy has sealed a mystery object inside a box. You can investigate it — but there’s one important rule:
NO PEEKING!
Make careful observations. Collect clues. Use your evidence to make an inference about what might be hidden inside.
But don't get too confident...
Will new evidence make you change your mind?
Ages
7-12 yrs
Duration
min
25
Difficulty
Medium
Stage
Stage 2-3
Cite this resource
Created by Darin Carr (BSc, DipEd)
NESA Accredited Teacher · Chemistry & Physics Specialist · 30+ years in-class teaching
Resource Version: 1.0
First Published:
Last Updated:
21 Aug 2026
MISSION VERIFIED
Classroom tested. Teacher designed. Safe at home.
Designed by Darin Carr (BScDip Ed)
Practising NESA accredited
Australian Science Teacher
★ 30+ years of classroom experience
MISSION PROGRESS
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LATEST TEACHER FEEDBACK
"The kids loved it. I also liked how it helped structure their thinking and predicting".
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Mr Tam
Before you investigate... watch the mystery
MISSION HOOK
Professor Picklebottom and the team are travelling and collecting amazing science mysteries.
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Mission Equipment
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
A shoebox or similar box with a lid
1–3 mystery objects
Tape
Paper and pencil
A ruler
A prepared grid of holes in the lid
A blunt wooden skewer, dowel or similar probe
A marker or small piece of tape for marking measurements
Important: Someone else should prepare the mystery box so the investigator doesn't know what's inside.
Let’s Investigate
Follow the missions steps below to solve the mystery.
1
NO PEEKING!
Someone else prepares the mystery box and seals the lid.
Your mission is to work out what might be hidden inside without opening the box or looking through the holes.
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
2
Listen for Clues
Gently tilt the box from side to side.
Listen carefully. Does something roll, slide, scrape, rattle or bump?
Try tilting the box in different directions.
Record exactly what you notice.
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
3
Follow the Movement
Slowly tilt one end of the box up and then the other.
Can you tell where the mystery object moves?
Does it seem to travel a long way, stop suddenly or stay in one part of the box?
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
4
Make Your First Model
Now use your observations to make an inference. (educated guess based on evidence)
Draw what you think might be inside the box.
Include the mystery object and anything else you think could explain its movement.
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
5
Probe the Mystery
Now collect a new type of evidence.
Carefully insert the blunt probe vertically through one of the prepared holes until you gently meet resistance.
Use the ruler or marked probe to measure how far it travelled into the box.
Repeat through several different holes.
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
6
Does the Evidence Fit?
Compare your probe measurements with the model you drew earlier.
Were your predictions correct?
Does the new evidence support your model — or reveal something unexpected?
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
7
Change Your Mind!
Scientists change their models when new evidence gives them a better explanation.
Look at all the evidence you collected.
Redraw your mystery-box model.
What did you change?
Which piece of evidence made you change it?
Don't open the box yet!
Compare your model with another investigator's.
Do different models explain the same evidence?
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
1
Big Title
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
1
Big Title
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
What kinds of evidence could help you investigate something you cannot see?
1
NO PEEKING!
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
What kinds of evidence could help you investigate something you cannot see?
1
NO PEEKING!
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
What kinds of evidence could help you investigate something you cannot see?
1
Big Title
Gather your materials and get
ready for an amazing mission!
PREDICT
OBSERVE
EVIDENCE
ASK
SAFETY
TIP
PREDICT
What kinds of evidence could help you investigate something you cannot see?
The Crazy Scientist LAB Learning System™
Every experiment follows The Crazy Scientist Lab Learning System™ — a simple way to help kids think like real scientists.
We
-
LINK to what they already know,
-
ACTIVATE curiosity through hands-on discovery
-
BUILD understanding that actually sticks.
Scientists often investigate things they cannot see directly.
Think about how you already do this:
You hear something behind a door and work out what might be happening.
You shake a wrapped present and use the sound and movement as clues.
You see footprints but not the animal that made them.
You feel the wind even though you cannot see the moving air.
In each case, you use evidence to work out an explanation for something you cannot directly observe.
Before you investigated the mystery box, what evidence did you think would be useful?
You never looked inside the mystery box — but you still discovered a surprising amount about it.
Think back through your investigation.
You:
listened for sounds as the box moved,
followed where the hidden object seemed to travel,
used a probe to collect a different kind of evidence,
made a model of what you thought was inside,
compared your model with the new evidence,
and changed your model when the evidence didn't fit.
Now think about your first model.
What did you change — and what evidence made you change it?
Your mystery box is a model for a much bigger scientific problem.
Scientists couldn't simply open an atom and look inside.
Instead, they performed experiments and studied what happened. They used those results as indirect evidence to develop models of what atoms might be like.
As scientists collected new evidence, their models changed.
An early model pictured atoms as tiny solid particles. Later evidence suggested that atoms contained smaller parts. More experiments revealed even more about their internal structure.
The important idea is not that scientists kept getting it wrong.
Their models became better as the evidence improved.
That's what happened in your investigation too:
EVIDENCE → MODEL → NEW EVIDENCE → TEST → REVISE
You couldn't see inside the box, but you could still investigate it scientifically.
That's one of science's superpowers: using evidence to understand things we cannot directly observe.
"Want the full teacher guide? The Crazy Scientist Lab includes classroom delivery tips, how to manage the WOW moment, differentiation for Stage 2 & 3, — ready to teach tomorrow."
Think Like a Scientist
Scientists don't stop after their first discovery.
They ask new questions, collect more evidence and test their ideas in different ways.
Where could you take this investigation next?
Could another model fit your evidence?
Draw a completely different arrangement inside the box that could explain everything you observed.
What new evidence would help?
Design one more test you could perform without opening the box. What would the result tell you about your model?
Dr Puddledrip’s Science Tip
Read the Science
How Can Scientists Study Something They Can't See?
Scientists don't always get to look directly at what they are investigating.
You couldn't see inside your mystery box, so you made observations and collected evidence. You used those clues to make an inference about what might be inside — and built a model to explain your evidence.
An inference isn't just a random guess. It is an idea based on evidence.
But scientists don't stop there.
They collect new evidence, test whether it fits their model and change the model when a better explanation is needed.
We can't simply open an atom and look inside it. Experiments provided evidence that scientists used to develop models of atomic structure.
We can't travel to the centre of Earth either. Scientists study evidence such as earthquake waves to infer what lies deep beneath our feet.
New evidence can change our explanations.
That's not a problem with science — that's how scientific knowledge grows.
Teachers & Homeschoolers: Print-ready HD versions of this Science Behind It poster and companion G&T Challenge Card are available inside The Crazy Scientist LAB.
Scientist's Challenge
Designed for HPGE, gifted learners and children who enjoy an extra challenge.
Teachers & Homeschoolers: Print-ready HD versions of this Science Behind It poster and companion G&T Challenge Card are available inside The Crazy Scientist LAB.
The Next Question...
You've solved today's mystery. Now discover where curiosity can take you next.
Teachers & Homeschoolers: Print-ready HD versions of this Science Behind It poster and companion G&T Challenge Card are available inside The Crazy Scientist LAB.
Vocabulary
Observation — Information you collect using your senses or measurements.
Evidence — Clues or information used to support an idea or explanation.
Inference — An explanation you make based on observations and evidence.
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Keep Exploring This Mystery
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