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PBS Makes Learning About Science Cool
Emily Lynne Ion
Friday, September 05, 2008
As a child, my parents gave me full reign to watch PBS programming, and I’ve been hooked ever since. But these days Sesame Street is no longer my favorite show. My new PBS addiction is WIRED Science, particularly the segment, What's Inside.
The program is a hybrid of mediums. Take the cutting edge technology reportage and irreverent attitude of WIRED Magazine, and add it to the in-depth, balanced journalism of PBS programming, and you’ve got WIRED Science. The program explores science from all angles but with a fresh approach that highlights real-life application. Topics like physics and organic chemistry, space exploration, health and environmentalism come alive through current events stories, live experiments, and interviews with pioneering leaders of scientific breakthroughs.
In particular, I love a segment called What’s Inside. The host deconstructs labels from common household products such as MiracleGrow, Cool Whip, and Colgate Toothpaste, discussing each ingredient’s chemical composition. Some of the revealed ingredients are shocking (Silicone in deodorant? Liquid smoke and cow heart in pet food?). Still others are just plain disgusting, like my favorite, Urea, the principle construct of mammal urine, commonly found in some toothpastes and cigarettes as a “flavor additive”.
WIRED Science was a gem. I say “was” because it only lasted one season (I guess those pledge drives weren’t effective enough). Though it’s no longer on the air, you can find the complete season on the PBS website, including all the What’s Inside segments.
The program was successfully distributed to science classrooms across the US, and teachers rave in the PBS blog that students were so enthusiastic they even watched it in their free time. As a parent, WIRED Science will help you understand exactly what makes up products, so you can better explain it to your children. And for those with teenagers, science has never been cooler.
