A series made up of 5 comic style mysteries, one for each year of primary school, for strengthening logic and visuo-spatial skills. In each volume, the children will have to help Ms. Teresa get the clues and find the culprit by solving captivating and fun logical challenges!

The first books in the series have already been translated into different languages around the world!

THE SERIES

The series Logic Mysteries – Ms. Teresa’s Investigations was created on the basis of a programme for the enhancement of logical intelligences - first of all visual, then followed by linguistic and numeric – which is the result of three years of research by the SApIE Association (Society for Learning and Education Informed by Evidence; www.sapie.it).

The comic-style series, which fits into the narrative context of the «mystery» genre, is composed of 5 volumes, one for each primary school class. Each volume presents a new plot and offers exercises of increasing difficulty.  Year by year the «challenge» and the logical and visual components to be practiced become more demanding.

Designed to be used independently by children in an extracurricular context, the series can also be used in the classroom, through activities in pairs or small groups. The series is adaptable worldwide and does not present any language obstacles.

THE CONTENTS

Each volume contains:

• a comic-style story with a new case to solve;
• exercises and games of increasing difficulty, to collect clues and strengthen logic skills;
• stickers to complete the table and discover the culprit.

THE VOLUMES IN THE SERIES

Ms. Teresa’s Investigations 1 KIDNAPPING AT RIALTO

It is a beautiful spring morning and the sun is shining on the Rialto market. All of a sudden, however, something disrupts the cheerful atmosphere: Mimì the poodle has disappeared... Has she escaped or was she kidnapped?

The first volume aims to provide an initial approach to logic through the recognition of visual components. The exercises are mainly based on models with missing shapes, encrypted texts, symmetries, matching pairs, ordering, completing missing items and identikits with visual features.

Find out more!

Leaf through some selected pages from the 1^st volume in the series that have been translated in English to facilitate your evaluation:

Ms. Teresa’s Investigations 2 THEFT AT THE PORT

A surprise visit for Aunt Teresa! Her cousin Gustavo has returned to Venice after a few months spent around the world on board his merchant ship. However, an unfortunate event ruins this happy reunion: someone has stolen a very precious piece of fabric from Gustavo's ship ... who was it?

The second volume aims to consolidate the basic logical-visual skills, enriching the level of logical complexity through the inferential activities involved. Exercises with tables and simple group theory, logical order and categorizations are introduced.

Find out more!

Leaf through some selected pages from the 2^nd volume in the series that have been translated in English to facilitate your evaluation:

Ms. Teresa’s Investigations 3 A COUNTERFEIT AT THE MUSEUM

An unexpected event interrupts Aunt Teresa and Pliny’s visit to the museum. The famous painting with the Lion of Venice has been replaced with a fake! Who was it? A collector, a keeper, an art student, a painter, an art restorer: who among them will be the culprit?

Graphic tools are used for describing and organizing reality. In relation to the child's cognitive growth and the demands of the school curriculum, the third volume places more attention to spatial coordinates, reading maps and charts, graphic data processing: histograms, pie charts, numerical tables, timetables.

Find out more!

Leaf through some selected pages from the 3^rd volume in the series that have been translated in English to facilitate your evaluation:

Ms. Teresa’s Investigations 4 ROBBERY AT THE JEWELLERY STORE

During the presentation of a new jewelry line at the Doge’s Palace, someone stole the precious Hòng Sé ruby… Who could it have been?

Cognitive growth allows for logical thinking to reach levels of greater abstraction, detaching itself from the need for visual support. The fourth volume shifts the focus to higher-level logical processes with an emphasis on logical and numerical inferences, combinatorics, multiple set theory, the construction of tables and textual schemes, reading of flow diagrams.

Find out more!

Leaf through some selected pages from the 4^th volume in the series that have been translated in English to facilitate your evaluation:

Ms. Teresa’s Investigations 5 SABOTAGE ON THE SHIP

Something unexpected is ruining the launch party for the new Magic Moon cruise ship: at the moment of departure, the ship fails to sail! What happened? Breakdown or sabotage? Who was it?

In relation to the curricular requirements, the fifth volume continues, with more complexity, the exercises from the previous volume. An additional emphasis is placed on more difficult subjects such as: logical equations, geometric and numerical problem solving, reading of complex graphs, proportions, logical syllogisms, probabilities and averages.

Find out more!

Leaf through some selected pages from the 5^th volume in the series that have been translated in English to facilitate your evaluation:

THE AUTHORS

Antonio Calvani was a professor of Special Education and Pedagogy at the University of Florence. He is the author of numerous teaching and learning books. He is currently president of the SApIE Scientific Association and carries out research and information sessions in schools and with parents, with particular attention to the development of cognitive enhancement.

Benedetto Zanaboni is a graduate in Primary Education and Social Education. He worked for about ten years as a professional educator, dealing with disabilities and social problems.  Currently he is a primary school teacher. He collaborates with the SApIE Scientific Association and the University of Florence, dealing with teaching, coding and education technologies.