Fact or Fiction: Mystery Mayhem!

What’s inside

Read each wild claim, choose Fact or Fiction, and use evidence to defend your answer!

1. A group of friends discovered glowing eyes in the bushes. This proves a monster was spying on them. (What else could cause glowing eyes? Explain your reasoning.)
   Fact · Fiction
2. Some frogs can actually freeze during winter and survive when they thaw out in spring. (Wood frogs have special adaptations that help protect their bodies during freezing.)
   Fact · Fiction
3. If you scream loudly enough inside a haunted house, you can shatter every glass window. (Breaking glass with sound requires very specific conditions. A normal scream won't shatter every window.)
   Fact · Fiction
4. A mysterious green glow appeared in the ocean because some living creatures can produce their own light. (Bioluminescent organisms can create light through chemical reactions.)
   Fact · Fiction
5. A student discovered a giant spiderweb across the trail. This proves the spider that made it must be enormous. (The size of a web does not necessarily tell you the size of the spider.)
   Fact · Fiction
6. A group of explorers found footprints that suddenly disappeared near a river. This proves the creature could fly. (Could the creature have entered the water, jumped, or walked on a different surface?)
   Fact · Fiction
7. Some lizards can escape predators by dropping their tails, and certain species can grow them back. (This survival adaptation is called autotomy. How might it protect a lizard?)
   Fact · Fiction
8. A strange buzzing sound came from a locked classroom. Since nobody was inside, the room must have been haunted. (What objects could make buzzing sounds without a person in the room?)
   Fact · Fiction
9. A lightning strike can sometimes turn sand into a glasslike material. (Lightning can create fulgurites when its intense heat melts sand.)
   Fact · Fiction
10. A student found a frozen pizza box outside the principal's office. This proves the principal secretly ate pizza for breakfast. (The box is evidence that pizza packaging was there, but not who ate the pizza or when.)
    Fact · Fiction
11. Some species of octopus can squeeze through openings barely larger than their beaks. (Octopuses have soft bodies without rigid skeletons. Their hard beaks limit the smallest openings they can pass through.)
    Fact · Fiction
12. Three friends heard a loud crash and discovered a broken trophy. This proves the last student who entered the room broke it. (Being the last person in a room does not establish responsibility. What additional evidence would help?)
    Fact · Fiction
13. A group of scientists discovered that some mushrooms can glow naturally in the dark. (Certain fungi produce their own light through bioluminescence.)
    Fact · Fiction
14. A student spotted a mysterious shadow crossing the gym during a power outage. This proves an invisible person was walking around. (A shadow does not prove someone was invisible. What other explanations are possible?)
    Fact · Fiction
15. Some crows can recognize human faces and remember people who have threatened them. (Research shows that crows can learn and remember particular human faces. Why might this ability help them survive?)
    Fact · Fiction