Kids around the world are quarantined or isolated at home right now. Here’s an activity you can do to have fun as a family and practice science skills.
First, you’ll tell a spooky or mysterious story from your life or the life of a family member or friend. Then you’ll use scientific questioning to try to figure out what happened.
Want to do the activity without the video? Here’s a PDF guide:
If you love spooky science, check out my book, Strange But True: 10 of the world’s greatest mysteries explained or The Science of Ghosts, my article for Science News for Students.
I was supposed to be visiting two schools and presenting a conference this week. So I decided to reach out to kids with this video instead. I hope you enjoy it!
One night I saw a white figure floating around my yard. I was not sleeping.
Hi Joe,
That sounds like a scary experience! There are many things other than a dream that could explain the white figure you saw. For example, it could have been an animal, a piece of trash blowing, a light, or a reflection that your brain wrongly interpreted as a figure. Also, if a person is not asleep but very tired, they may hallucinate something like that. It may be impossible to discover what it really was since the experience is over. But here is an article I wrote that goes through some of the different ways people might experience ghosts: https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/science-ghosts
2 days ago i was playing x-box and there was a white light like a shape of a ghost:-(
Hi Isaac, That’s a weird experience! But there are so many things it could be other than a ghost. If you want to figure out what happened, ask questions and try to remember as much as you can about what the light looked like, how it moved, how long it lasted, etc. These details make it easier to determine what may have caused it. You can also read my article about some of the reasons why people experience things that seem like ghosts: https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/science-ghosts