Philosophy
Something new and gender directional from PBS.
Here’s hoping that one of the delightful young ladies on “SciGirls,” a new series under the PBS Kids Go! banner, grows up to be tech-savvy enough that she figures out how to remove annoying animated interlopers from otherwise excellent television programs.
“SciGirls,” hoping to right the vexing science-and-technology imbalance that has left women chronically underrepresented in those fields, shows tweener girls engaged in projects that make physics, math, biology and other subjects seem fun.
And it succeeds admirably, primarily because it uses real kids in all their awkward, giggly glory, not the Stepford-like youths seen in Disney shows. Trouble is, the makers of “SciGirls” seem not to realize just how refreshing and entertaining these ordinary kids are, because they also toss in an irksome animated girl named Izzie, who starts off each episode by chatting with her animated pal Jake and then keeps popping up in the middle of the real-life adventures the real-life girls are having.
Izzie and Jake’s dialogue sounds as if it were written by grown-ups who don’t know anything about tweeners but think they can appeal to them by randomly tossing in words — “Log On!” “Upload!” “Mash-up!” — that they imagine kids to be obsessed with. Fortunately, though, Izzie and Jake’s opening bits don’t last long.
Once the actual human children show up — different ones are featured in each episode — science does indeed seem to be downright enjoyable. In Sunday’s installment, four girls take on the task of building a giant pig puppet for a May Day parade. Because they want blinking eyeballs and other moving parts, the project becomes a lesson in basic physics, as well as in the art of building scale models to test theories. And the end product is a hilarious, pink, fire-breathing success.
A later episode shows four girls determined to increase the turtle population in a pond near their school. By the time they’re done learning about turtles and what attracts them they have been thigh-deep in gross-looking water and come within finger-losing distance of some nasty-looking snapping turtles.
Now if only one of those turtles would take Izzie’s head off, this program would be perfect.
SciGirls
- Goldiblox Recruiting Girls As Engineers
"GoldiBlox: The girls' toy commercial sweeping the Internet" by Susan Rohwer November 21st, 2013 latimes.com If you haven’t seen it, check out the commercial for GoldiBlox that’s sweeping the Internet. It’s an ad for a set of interactive...
- Way To Go Tesco
"Tesco keeps chemistry set as a boys' toy despite protests" by Charlie Cooper May 5th, 2013 The Independent Tesco has defended its decision to label a children’s chemistry set a boys’ toy, despite criticism from gender equality campaigners....
- Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day--argonne National Laboratory
Need more programs like this. "Argonne to hold annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" by Eleanor Taylor. December 3rd, 2010 Argonne National Laboratory Girls in sixth through eighth grades are invited to learn all about science and engineering...
- Teaching Kids About Science In A Fun Way
Evelyn Knittle attempts to power up an LED using a lemon battery during a science day-camp at Noyes Lab on Sunday. I hope programs like this are common and throughout the country. I am fairly certain Argonne National Labs has a similar program. "U of...
- "isaac Newton And Physics For Kids"--book Review
"Isaac Newton and Physics for Kids" by Kathy Ceceri June 26th, 2010 Wired A lot of nonfiction for kids in upper elementary and middle school is what I think of as “book report books.” They’re packed with facts, but not presented in a way that...
Philosophy
"Scigirls"...PBS
Something new and gender directional from PBS.
"Yes, Those Are Real Girls Doing Icky Science Things"
by
Neil Genzlinger
May 8th, 2010
The New York Times
by
Neil Genzlinger
May 8th, 2010
The New York Times
Here’s hoping that one of the delightful young ladies on “SciGirls,” a new series under the PBS Kids Go! banner, grows up to be tech-savvy enough that she figures out how to remove annoying animated interlopers from otherwise excellent television programs.
“SciGirls,” hoping to right the vexing science-and-technology imbalance that has left women chronically underrepresented in those fields, shows tweener girls engaged in projects that make physics, math, biology and other subjects seem fun.
And it succeeds admirably, primarily because it uses real kids in all their awkward, giggly glory, not the Stepford-like youths seen in Disney shows. Trouble is, the makers of “SciGirls” seem not to realize just how refreshing and entertaining these ordinary kids are, because they also toss in an irksome animated girl named Izzie, who starts off each episode by chatting with her animated pal Jake and then keeps popping up in the middle of the real-life adventures the real-life girls are having.
Izzie and Jake’s dialogue sounds as if it were written by grown-ups who don’t know anything about tweeners but think they can appeal to them by randomly tossing in words — “Log On!” “Upload!” “Mash-up!” — that they imagine kids to be obsessed with. Fortunately, though, Izzie and Jake’s opening bits don’t last long.
Once the actual human children show up — different ones are featured in each episode — science does indeed seem to be downright enjoyable. In Sunday’s installment, four girls take on the task of building a giant pig puppet for a May Day parade. Because they want blinking eyeballs and other moving parts, the project becomes a lesson in basic physics, as well as in the art of building scale models to test theories. And the end product is a hilarious, pink, fire-breathing success.
A later episode shows four girls determined to increase the turtle population in a pond near their school. By the time they’re done learning about turtles and what attracts them they have been thigh-deep in gross-looking water and come within finger-losing distance of some nasty-looking snapping turtles.
Now if only one of those turtles would take Izzie’s head off, this program would be perfect.
SciGirls
- Goldiblox Recruiting Girls As Engineers
"GoldiBlox: The girls' toy commercial sweeping the Internet" by Susan Rohwer November 21st, 2013 latimes.com If you haven’t seen it, check out the commercial for GoldiBlox that’s sweeping the Internet. It’s an ad for a set of interactive...
- Way To Go Tesco
"Tesco keeps chemistry set as a boys' toy despite protests" by Charlie Cooper May 5th, 2013 The Independent Tesco has defended its decision to label a children’s chemistry set a boys’ toy, despite criticism from gender equality campaigners....
- Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day--argonne National Laboratory
Need more programs like this. "Argonne to hold annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" by Eleanor Taylor. December 3rd, 2010 Argonne National Laboratory Girls in sixth through eighth grades are invited to learn all about science and engineering...
- Teaching Kids About Science In A Fun Way
Evelyn Knittle attempts to power up an LED using a lemon battery during a science day-camp at Noyes Lab on Sunday. I hope programs like this are common and throughout the country. I am fairly certain Argonne National Labs has a similar program. "U of...
- "isaac Newton And Physics For Kids"--book Review
"Isaac Newton and Physics for Kids" by Kathy Ceceri June 26th, 2010 Wired A lot of nonfiction for kids in upper elementary and middle school is what I think of as “book report books.” They’re packed with facts, but not presented in a way that...