Ectropy Secret Science Team Kit Review

Ectropy’s Secret Science Team Kit is a captivating hands-on crime scene mystery kit for kids (geared for ages 9-12 years old). This is great for homeschoolers, classrooms, parties, or even just a fun educational evening with the kids.

I received SST Mission #1002, The Case of the Stolen Bicycle. The size shown is currently listed under their party kits- but they are revamping it for classroom usage as well. I had a local 5th grade teacher working with me on this review, and she had a classroom size of 22 students.

 This is what the secret science team box looked like when I opened it up. There was a storyline sheet, case file instruction booklet, data recording sheet, test tubes and test tube rack, plastic beaker, chromatography paper, pH paper, test liquids and other reagents. Everything except water is included! It even had a fun 20ft roll of yellow and black crime scene tape for decoration! The kids especially loved this! This kit was able to cover Mrs. B’s entire 5th grade class of 22 students.

Above you see the sealed Official envelopes which the kids were able to open. Also you see the boxes which were to hold the test tubes for each group, as well as the reagents. Below is a snapshot of the Crime Scene tape, specimen cup, chromatography paper, and pH paper.

The specimens included were Red Print, Crime Scene Sample, Simulated Human Blood, and Simulated Human Antiserum.

   Due to our county’s regulations I was not able to actually photograph the class as they were working on their crime scene, but the class was set up in 7 groups of 3 students each, with 1 group having 4 students. The students took everything out of the box themselves for each group, and began to work on the mystery. The setup only took a few minutes as the students read the instructions.

I do now want to go into too much detail and spoil any results, but below you can see the pH paper as tested by the students.

And here is the chromatography paper results.

The students had a BLAST! The entire experiment took the 5th grade class about 1 hour from start to finish. This is not only a SUPER fun idea, but it is a great hands on educational experience-for kids OR adults! The students need to be able to follow the directions properly, and make their own observations in order to solve this mystery. It promotes teamwork in a group setting so that all students must work together and take turns in order to solve the mystery as a team.