The Magic School Bus

[Pickpocket]

I'll spare you the Ayn Rand Mega-Nerd Squad (ARMNS) rant: Bill Nye believes in climate change.

LOL you're still on this weeks later. so fucking sad

[CMonster]

things

I see where you are going with the analogy. I guess my next question has to be is it as bad as The Magic School Bus in terms of scientific inaccuracy? Maybe I just remember it different than you, but I had a couple science teachers use clips with good explanations of things like friction or heat transfer (conduction, etc) that stand out as being just fine at explaining a scientific idea in an understandable way for kis.

[CMonster]

I'm not here to argue, I'm here to save you. You realize you asked Shogun a question, right? That's a really dangerous thing to do.

so fucking sad

Couldn't have said it better

[Velvet Crowe]

All this proves is that your teachers and textbooks fucking failed you. Which is no surprise to anyone who is familiar with the horrid education system in the US and Canada.

And that's no offense to either of those games; I LOVED Age of Empires myself, and it does help one think about military history. But it pales in that regard to a good teacher and some well-written books.

Amen to that, I can honestly say that most of what I do know is from personal research. My primary education was awful, especially in high school where half of my teachers were often times pushing misguided agendas. Hell, I remember having a teacher who taught aboriginal studies who should be fired for the blatant bullshit she spouted{such as how she claimed that the foundation of medicine is found upon the aboriginals and how Europeans were nothing but a bunch superstitious buffoons when it came to medicine until they founded the America's. She also liked to overplay their significance, claiming that they were unique for having a polytheistic religion.}

Far as the mention of Age of Empires go, remember I was just 8 when I started playing it. The concept of nationhood, chivalry and warfare were all concepts I barely understood if at all. For me it was pretty good introduction to knowing about nations and heroes like Spain's El Cid and France's Joan of Arc. I wouldn't equate that to reading a historical book or even a wiki article, but for me it was pretty good starting point for learning history.

That said, is it really a bad thing to use trivia{granted it isn't wrong} to entertain younger audiences so that they can get interested in science? Naturally Billy Nye and Magic Schoolbus are more or less trivia shows, but if they delved into the complex workings of the world I doubt that would interest too many kids. Making a show with small, digestible facts seems like a much more reasonable direction to go for educating young kids into learning about science then it is to try and explain to them the Theory of Relativity.

Ultimately, anyone who is TRULY dedicated to learning anything about the world is required to read a lot. But how do we encourage people to go that direction, regardless of the academic subject?

[ShogunRua]

things

I see where you are going with the analogy. I guess my next question has to be is it as bad as The Magic School Bus in terms of scientific inaccuracy?

No, it's not nearly as bad as The Magic School Bus in terms of inaccuracy. Again, most of the mistakes in Bill Nye were of the "oversimplified to the point of being inaccurate" variety. The Magic School Bus was straight-up wrong multiple times per episode. But whether Jordan really did score 35 points that night against the Lakers or not, it won't help you understand basketball/science.

That said, is it really a bad thing to use trivia{granted it isn't wrong} to entertain younger audiences so that they can get interested in science?

Trivia has nothing to do with science. You might as well try to get a kid "passionate" about literature by taking him to a baseball game.

It creates a completely false sense of science. In fact, many of those that enjoyed Bill Nye probably ended up disappointed when they realized what science was truly all about.

Making a show with small, digestible facts seems like a much more reasonable direction to go for educating young kids into learning about science then it is to try and explain to them the Theory of Relativity.

Why does your go-to response always invoke the "Theory of Relativity"? You might as well argue that kids should NOT get into reading literature at an early age because watching Disney adaptations is a "more reasonable direction" than reading William Faulkner novels, and apparently, nothing simpler than Faulkner novels exists.

Also, how do you imagine people developed passion for science prior to televisions?

It's not directly correlated, but should be noted that the science education of students in the US was a hell of a lot higher when they all learned from books than when they started incorporating dumb television shows in later decades so the teachers could sit on their fat asses.

[paulofilmo]

Have you seen Rough Science (youtube)?

I think it was about four scientists (and Kate Humble - She can dive!) who go off to a far-flung place and use their science knowledge to basically show off science. It's very simple, and it all went over my head, but I had a massive crush on Kathy Sykes, and the title was hot. Rough Science. ungghh.

I grew up on David Attenborough and TIme Team. Kids respond to beauty and enthusiasm (Kathy Sykes). I was expected to shut-up and watch Baldrick and the leaf cutter ants. Band name.

[Pickpocket]

Modern American teaching: http://imgur.com/KtKNmXG They don't want you to know how to think, but what to think. Fun fact: that grading system was developed by the NSA

[martryn]

I put on The Magic School Bus for my two year old a few months ago. I'd never seen it myself, but had always heard that it was good. We watched an episode and it was shit. I tried to watch a second episode, and it was just too much shit. I could watch a third.

As a recommendation, I'd say the new Curious George series (with William H. Macy as the narrator) is pretty solid. It's not a show specifically about science, and not every episode even deals with it, but it does a great job showing George learning through experimentation and exploring basic concepts in a way that even the youngest of kids will enjoy. And I don't mind watching it, either. The episode where George builds a vending machine and the one where he creates a lock and dam both stick out. And there's an episode talking about insulation and composting and all sorts of things. Not so bad, and nothing glaringly wrong (minus that a monkey has human-like intelligence).