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Sesame Street Begins Teaching Math and Science
An anonymous reader sends in this excerpt from ABC News:
"This season of 'Sesame Street,' which premiered today, has added a few new things to its usual mix of song, dance and educational lessons. In its 42nd season, the preschool educational series is tackling math, science, technology, and engineering — all problem areas for America's students — in hopes of helping kids measure up. ... This season, 'Sesame Street' will include age-appropriate experimentation — even the orange monster Murray will conduct science experiments in a recurring feature."
This alone will probably do more to improve education than the entire No Child Left Behind Act. Provided, of course, that it actually teaches the purpose of experimentation and science, teaches kids to ask "why?" and devise experiments to test ideas. All too often, "kid science" is "do this, then this, and now look at the pretty (green goo|flames|shiny), followed by a lecture on what went on. I'm hopeful that this will be one of the ones to get it right.
What about when they get to E=MC2
Because last time i checked, C is for cookie, thats good enough for me
. .
Murry? Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker are the only muppets that should be conducting experiments!
Is Bill Nye dressing up as Big Bird?
I just saw Will Arnett as Max the Magician (ala Arrested Development) teaching addition and subtraction the other day. Hillarious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsuvBrXcm0Q&list=PLCCB3D86E6391F8DF&index=13
You know, I'm pretty far right wing in general, but I'm not a religious fundamentalist. There's often a difference between the two. I also have no problem with Sesame Street teaching math and science along with reading and colors and everything else they do. As far as tv, Sesame Street is one of the few shows that I would not have a problem with my kids watching every day, if I had kids.
It's a shame you don't have a political party that represents you. *shrug*
If Sesame Street helps reduce the frequency of math-phobes in our young population, I will be eternally thankful. Too many people have escaped learning math due to being afraid of it; if they are introduced to it at a young age they might not develop an irrational fear of it.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Yes, now my idea for an awesome episode ending can come true! "This show was brought to you by the letter 01000001"
"Let's see what happens when we put nitro glycerine into a blender. Timmy, why don't you push that button whilst I get behind this big tungsten shield!"
Whirrrr... bang!....
"We're gonna need another timmy!"
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
I for one would like to see Elmo experiment with fire.
Sorry, I meant "experimented".
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
It's a shame you don't have a political party that represents you. *shrug*
It's even more of a shame that he doesn't have a constituency.
Surely they can bring Bunsen and Beaker over from the muppet show...
They is one, they call themselves "democrats".
Sincerely,
The rest of the world.
Ah, fair point, fair point.
I wish the Progressive Party still existed in force on a national level. *sigh*
Sounds like the worries of the John Birch Society. Write a blog entry about it on Anus.com?
Inevitability is the narrowing influence of the God of the gaps. Inevitability is that these people eventually ending up on the wrong side of history.
It frustrates me to no end to see how much drag these people create.
"Let's see what happens when we put nitro glycerine into a blender. Timmy, why don't you push that button whilst I get behind this big tungsten shield!"
RU sure you don't make a confusion with MythBusters?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
I really encourage you to reconsider your opinion of television shows like Sesame Street. I'm studying to be an engineer at a prestigious university and my personal experiences lead me to believe that I was inspired by shows like Sesame Street, The Magic School Bus, and Bill Nye to go for a science and math oriented career.
I think your son would definitely benefit from watching more than just football once in a while.
is brought to you by the Avogadro number.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
The only true TV scientist is Beakman. Bill Nye is a Beakman wannabe, 100000x less interesting. But Bill had the backing and so Beakman was lost to us all.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Please say this means more Beaker and Bunsen. While more Muppets than Sesame Street, they could still have a (hilarious) place in such education entertainment.
Of course, Bunsen might need to learn a bit of science, first...
Yes
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
> As for the story, teaching kids to question things for themselves spells the end of the liberal state.
WOW. Just, WOW.
That's it in a nutshell, really, folks.
It has nothing to do with me being against TV for children. It has to do with us choosing more traditional routes to interact with our child than TV time.
Yes, you can watch and interact with the TV as a family but I'd much rather be outside doing something or playing with a hands on toy than watching the new Sesame Street.
But hey, raise your child as you wish, it's a free country. Just please don't plop him in front of the latest Fox adult-tailored cartoon and call it good.
Agreed. It's not as good as a parent--it's not enough, without a parent--but I've seen kids watch television with math problems and do the math problems. It's pretty normal, I imagine, among children who have been taught to do math in the first place.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
If you stopped doing things that might provoke somebody to an idiotic reaction, you'd never do anything.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Seems like a natural consequence of having any political actors on the show. It's the naive part of me, but I still think having the first lady on can be neat, regardless of which party is involved.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
We don't watch much TV (I watch one NFL game a week and we do some Netflix streaming) and our son definitely doesn't (and probably won't watch much more than football even after he reaches the suggested age of two). However, after observing the TV watching habits of those with children we know, especially one who proudly placed a photo online of their child watching Futurama, I'm going to guess that STEM education via PBS isn't as going to do as much as they may hope.
The education of an individual is a lifelong process. Sesame street might be able to help for a few moments, but of course it won't do everything.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
I like Elmo's new catch phrase: "Lets ENGINEER!"
If that doesn't send a once-more-into-the-breach-dear-friends chill down your spine, you're not cut out to be an engineer.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
1, 1 electrons, 2, 2 electrons, 3, 3 electrons, 4, 4 electrons , 5, 5 electrons , 6, 6 electrons, 7, 7 electrons!
Actually, I'm a Right Wing Wacko.
I dont feel like going postal over this news... am I doing it wrong?
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
Johnny was a scientist,
but Johnny is no more.
For what Johnny thought was H20,
was H2SO4.
Javascript, cookies, flash, and ActiveX must be enabled in order to view this sig.
I still don't understand math. I can manipulate the symbols but I don't understand what the symbols represent. I believe that as a student in any discipline, understanding the things that the symbols represent is far more essential than being able to decode the symbols without comprehension.
Sure I have basic concepts down such as whole numbers, but more complex functions are completely lost on me.
I would be ever grateful to a math educator who could teach understandable concepts first, followed distantly by symbolic notation.
Now that you understand what I'm taking about, I'll give this concept a name: "numbers vs numerals"
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
When I was young, like 3-4, I had a TI-99. On it there weren't many games, so I enjoyed playing a math tutor. The math tutor was not a game, but it used graphics and was engrossing. I am now extremely good at math, with my last course being differential equations about a decade ago.
My theory is: I think if someone would come up with software, that simply engaged you, but was educational, it could educate people from K-college if you added enough content. The software can be replicated for free, is more portable than 1,000 books, and can do more than books can.
Before World of Warcraft came out(before any MMORPG), I knew there would be one MMORPG to rule them all. The same goes for the revolution in education. It is simply cost prohibitive to do the education revolution twice, but once someone does it, every human on the planet will use it.
Who will it be: Open source? Commercial? Adbased free?(ugh please no) or maybe a philanthropic billionaire wants to do it right.
I long to see the day when there are highly educated kids in the third world simply because there is nothing more entertaining to them than learning.
Like I said,"This is my theory, but probably your theory too."
Sesame Street is never going to be teaching Fluid Dynamics for Engineering, because you need so much education to build yourself up there. Television cannot do what a computer can do: Assess your education level then give you appropriate course work. This is cool because even people who forgot what they learned, but can't retake courses, can get with the program and become highly educated.
Modern man no longer gets educated and then gets a job. Modern man gets educated, gets a job if they're lucky, but never stops learning.
God spoke to me
Have gnu, will travel.
Cookie Monster has been castrated. Cookies are a "sometimes food", and he mostly eats vegetables now.
I thought the show jumped the shark when Snuffleufagus(sp?) was discovered as real but this is worse.
Whats next? Oscar the Grouch starts liking things and keeps clean.
Super Grover no longer flys just incase other children try to imitate such things?
And Elmo is the antithesis of all that was ever good about the show.
Agreed.
. .
"AGW "scientists" only share data with pals of like minds..."
What?
I hate grammar Nazi's.
NPR and PBS are the best mass-media expression of USA democracy I've seen in my half-century of existence. Unfortunately, cunts like Rupert Murdoch can afford to jam their signals.
How do you fit in that theory countries with excellent education systems (according to the UN) like Finland, Denmark and Sweden, which also have high taxes and government spending?
Dilbert RSS feed
There's an alarming amount of pro-liberal, pro-government and pro-business propaganda on Sesame Street in addition to the lessons of childhood. I wouldn't trust it any more than late Soviet propaganda.
No there isn't. I'm fairly well attuned to these things and watch Sesame Street with my kids.
Prove me wrong with five examples.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann has criticized the HPV vaccine. Is she a "moonbat left wing wacko"?
TV ain't bad. Some programs are.
I grew up with TV. Granted, we didn't have cartoon morning shows back then, the time between 8 and 12 on Saturdays was usually filled with language television classes (and a really funky old geezer who taught Latin in a rather amusing way, I loved him).
Yes, that was my Saturday morning entertainment 'til I was 10.
And while I was probably a rather odd child, there are educational shows for kids that are actually entertaining, too. I do recommend, though, that you watch them with your child so you can first of all decide what's suitable and to answer questions he might have.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Check the latest uploads in https://www.youtube.com/user/SesameStreet ... They even have two major The Big Bang Theory actors in it!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Beakman's World should be brought back. It was the most fun show I used to watch when I was a kid.
While sesame street really isn't well suited to adults, at least it isn't as bad as UK preschool television, or AU preschool television.
UK television has such desirable programming as the boobahs, which are vaguely humanoid shaped blobs that fly around crapping out rainbows while making farting sounds, and the notoriously famous tellietubbies who must obey everything the narrator says, eat a strict diet of pink goop, and play with random items that mysteriously appear underneath a giggling babyfaced sun. (Oh yes, they appear to live in a crashed UFO.)
AU children's television at least treats children like they have brains a little meatier than lumpy tapioca, but their bananas in pajamas has some questionable things going on. While I applaud that they try to flesh out the character personalities (each character set has thing that they seem to prefer, such as favorite toys, foods, etc) more than the UK offerings do, I find that the setting is questionable.
Somehow the bananas, the teddies, and the rat in the hat are the only residents of their town. Further, the only male character that is not either of ambiguous sexual preference (I don't have anything against the bananas being apparently gay, just so you know.) Or a total shyster is poor Morgan, the only male teddy on the show. Morgan is presented as being a young boy without any father figure, who lives with his two older sisters, and no parents. He has obvious issues fitting into the setting, as the bananas are more like goofy uncles, and rat in the hat is not a good role model. I feel that this displays an unrealistic and unheathly model for children to follow. The show would be much better with a more diverse and well rounded cast. (Especially since it seems to be focused on teaching kids how to interact with each other, and be more socially aware.)
Granted, american childrens shows tend to revolved around physical slapstik more often than they should, sesame street at least doesn't feature flying balls of rainbow flatulence. :)
Actually, her criticism isn't of the vaccine itself, it's of the mandatory innoculation of young girls.
Damn it!
Well, I'd better go break it to the Liberal Moustache-Twiddlers Association that the serfs have gained independence. What possible need could they have for our education programs, now that they're deciding to watch children's TV?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
How do you fit in that theory countries with excellent education systems (according to the UN) like Finland, Denmark and Sweden, which also have high taxes and government spending?
You don't. Basically a conservative or liberal political perspective is largely irrelevant with respect to education, everyone wants kids to be educated properly. What is different in the US is that we basically have corrupt teacher's unions and a corrupt educational bureaucracy. The US probably spends more money per student than the countries you mention, unfortunately that money does not make it to the classroom. Way too much money goes to administration and incompetent teachers are protected and can't be fired. Unlike the unions of old, US unions are no longer the guardians of their own trade, training/apprenticing the new members, getting rid of those that can not work to required levels of "craftsmanship". Perhaps the unions in the countries you mention are different.
The reason education takes on a liberal vs conservative appearance in the US is basically because the democratic party is in bed with the corrupt teacher's unions. The vast majority of conservatives want to rebuild the educational system to get rid of the current corrupt system. Only a small handful of conservatives get all worked up over evolution, global warming, etc. Regrettably these few nutbags make for better TV and get all the publicity and provide a distorted picture of conservative goals.
It taught me to stay as far away from the sort of people that associate with reality television as possible.
Can you imagine if they did evolution. The apoplectic response from the Religious Right would give the late night stand up comics enough material for weeks.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Unless its changed since I last saw an episode, Play School is good quality preschool TV.
Far better than the junk the commercial networks use to fulfill their legal obligation to show 1/2 hour of locally made preschool TV every weekday. I mean come on, a show where the main character is a talking LAWNMOWER? WTF is up with that?
Ah.... I remember him. When I was a kid there was Mr. Wizard on the tube on weekdays and a couple of science shows on Saturday morning -- Discovery 66 (67?) and another one I can't recall the name of. After a while my mom knew not to pester me to turn off the TV and go outside and play until after my hour of science programming was finished. I didn't much care for the cartoons on Saturdays but the science shows were great. I'm glad to see some of that coming back even if it's only a portion of Sesame Street. It's a start. And I'm hopeful it'll be better than Bill Nye (not so-o-o bad but I agree with your "fluffy" assessment) and the execrable Beakman's World (aka: science trivia for the short attention span afflicted and, man, talk about your freak show). The show I'd like to see return to the airwaves is the one that was a lecture done by some college professor (MIT? Caltech?) that included some very simple computer graphics that demonstrated the principles being discussed. I remember seeing these on TV back in the early 80s and the shows were probably targetted at at least high school age kids. I can't recall the name but I'm sure that some other Slashdotter does.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
I don't have anything against Bill in particular, he got his start around here and I saw him film one of the segments at the local park, I just wish he wouldn't feel the need to rely so heavily on gimmicks when there's so much really interesting stuff that's available for shows.
I haven't seen Beakman's World, so I won't be commenting on that.
Apparently there are DVDs available, I'll have to get a copy for myse, err nephew.
Please no. Education television has already ruined children's TV as it is, let's not compound the problem.
You want to help kids? Give them dreams. Give them a reason, a desire, a longing to do something great. When they get older, let them think through high-school about building star-ships or finding cures to perplexing diseases or even world peace.
Doing this simply gives kids the tools, but no motivation to use them. They will be intelligent, but unmotivated workers; willing to maintain the status quo, but not to improve it.
Let Mr. Wizard, or Bill Nye, or Beakman handle the fun science / math stuff. Even Batman fits here, though he's more sci-fi.
I am John Hurt.
If this is satire, it's brilliant. If this is serious, you're a scared, pitiful little creature. Teaching kids to share toys as left-wing propaganda... it's the perfect example of Poe's Law.
Kids can not learn math from sitting there staring at a TV.
Nonsense. I learned algebra as a child (1st or 2nd grade age) from watching a TV show called "Square One". They taught the reasoning behind it without being tied down to a certain way of writing equations, and I could apply it to a wide range of problems.
You know where kids can't learn math? School. You know why kids can't learn math at school? Because it's not taught there. Adding and subtracting isn't math. Memorizing the quadratic equation isn't math. Learning the definition of sine and cosine IS NOT MATH. It's all useful background information, but it's only just arithmetic, or computing, or history, or whatever you want to call it.
Find a high school graduate and ask them the Pythagorean theorem. Almost any of them could tell you. Ask them to prove it to you; ask them to show you they know it is true. Most won't even know what you are talking about. You could ask 1000 kids and be surprised if even 1 can tell you any of the extremely simple proofs. Most kids who go through 12 years of school and even get college degrees manage to do so without ever seeing any math.
I like how sesame street wants to try to teach math; I doubt they can do it though. However, it can be done, like the show I mentioned "Square One" did a very good job of showing how to reason through problems.
What about that cool pinball animation from the 1970s? 1 2 3 4 5, 6 7 8 9 10, 11 12! Maybe it didn't teach children to use a base-12 number system, but it probably helped some of them to learn that numbers exist in addition to the customary 10 digits on their hands. Atypical kids already had 12 fingers, but that's a subject for another conversation.
To
I guess they can make it official, but as someone with a child that's been watching this for a while now, they already started this before. They had a whole episode explaining the scientific method last season, and many of the other episodes showed math and discussed observation skills.
I've only seen the 1st episode this season so far though, which had the word of the day as "Engineer." Perhaps this is just a sign that they intend to do it every episode and make it even more of a focus, which is cool.
Maybe Murray can figure out the neutrino thing.
Other countries' children watch Sesame Street as well. If this new programming helps anyone, it will also help everyone. The USA will remain in the same position until the underlying cultural changes occur.
Is "Square One" still around?
We have a culture problem among certain minority groups which equates doing well in school as being white. Until you find a way to end this destructive behavior nothing much is going to have an effect past the early years of school. Most kids, even from the poorest areas, do find initially. It is when peer pressure gets involved that they willingness to learn is affected.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Learning our kids the basics of modern life in one of their most important amusement and education moments.
The 42nd season, that's why 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything!!!
Every answer is repeated by some purple dude in a cape, who then laughs: "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!!!"
/Get your learn on, Aight?
With PBS stations around the nation closing left and right, it's a shame that the ever growing population of people who are ditching their cable for OTA broadcasting won't have Sesame Street for their children.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
I was wondering how long it would take for an anti-union douche to show up in this discussion. Unionization makes teaching more attractive by preventing a teacher from being fired for taking risks and innovating. There's always going to be some wingnut parent that disagrees with something the teacher is discussing in class, be it evolution, women's rights, religion, even education. Allowing teachers to be fired basically on a parent's whim makes it that much harder to attract good teachers, and it's pretty damn hard already. Do unions have their downsides? Sure. But they don't have a monopoly on corruption. Management is just as corrupt, if not more so.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
She went on morning shows saying Gardisil caused retardation in young girls. She's a kook.
You're probably thinking of The Mechanical Universe hosted by a CalTech prof. I used to get up on Saturday mornings, eat breakfast, watch cartoons for 90 minutes, then watch TMU. Meant I had a good background before I even got to high school Physics.
Much as I enjoyed Bill Nye as an adult, it was still too much aimed at the ADD crowd IMO. Never watched Beakman's World. Mr. Wizard was better paced for the pre-MTV crowd.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
If you're anti-vaccine, does that mean you're pro-polio?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Aleph One! Hah ah ah ahhhh!!
Aleph Two!! Ah ah ah ah ah!!!
By grade 8 will American kids finally be able to compete with grade 2 Canadians :-), Can't wait to see this.
Oh, please, please bring Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker on Sesame Street.
Also, having Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul on as guest stars would be "the bomb."
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
> As for the story, teaching kids to question things for themselves spells the end of the liberal state. For then you start asking just where your money goes, as just one example...
That thing cuts both ways, you know. They might start asking where their money comes from.
2*3*3*3*3*11*251
Only true science can be communicated with Dr. Bunsen, and lab assistant Beaker at the "helm."
For real science, Pat Paulson's "Mr. Wizard" character was always an eye opener,(good times, good times).
Maybe they'd have time to learn how to read and count instead.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
My daughter's favorite show is Sesame Street, and she is turning 3. My son, who is turning 7 often watches it with her. As a result I am very familiar with the show these days. Elmo is a small part of the show. He usually has just one segment of the show, Elmo's World, and it isn't that obnoxious even if you hate Elmo. Cookie Monster is about as big of a part of the show as he has ever been, and although they are careful not to glorify his obsession with cookies in quite the way they used to, he hasn't fundamentally changed, and his enthusiasm for cookies is as high as ever. Kids really pay attention to the show, it has clout with them, so this is very good news.
That's quite the straw man. Unions are hardly the only way to protect a teacher's job from a wingnut parent. The fact remains that union contracts demonstrably protect the incompetent fairly often, as opposed to the fanciful hollywood-like scenario you present. There are numerous non-union schools, charter for example, filled with innovative teachers covering the "controversial" topics you mention like evolution, women's rights, etc.
My son has played around on that a lot, and used the Scientific Method at least once.
Actually, her criticism isn't of the vaccine itself, it's of the mandatory innoculation of young girls.
For values of "mandatory" that include a conscientious objection opt-out.
Minnesota also has a bevy of required inoculations for little kids before they enter school, just like Texas. Curious that she never objected to that while she was in the state legislature.
Unionization makes teaching more attractive by preventing a teacher from being fired for taking risks and innovating.
The *current* unions make teaching less attractive because teachers are not reward for superior performance and the goods works of the majority are undermined by the bad works of the incompetent that they are forced to work along side. The incompetent who are rewarded over the good because the incompetent have more time in the chair.
To some people, "properly" means knowing that the earth is 6000 years old.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."