As a product of the 1980’s, I have a lot of wonderful childhood memories of North American television shows that introduced me to the curiosities of science and math, notably:
3-2-1 Contact
Mr. Wizard’s World
Newton’s Apple
Square One
Strawberry Square
Bill Nye
Beakman’s World
I have been out of touch with current children’s educational TV. What are the best shows for kids out there that promote the same spirit of curiosity that led me to the Dope?
here in Canada we got something called OWL TV with it’s own magazine. Not sure if it was outside of Ontario either. They showed it on TVO the public channel of Ontario. It dealt with ecology and sciency stuff. I think it was more geared for animal sciences more so than say astronomy and mathematics. I might even have one of those old magazines lying around in tattered condition.
In the category of natural history, I loved South Carolina ETV’s NatureScene.
Peep and the Big Wide World was created to do what was never considered before - teach science concepts to preschoolers. It’s a lot of fun, even for grownups.
Sid the Science Kid is really good. I’d say it’s about a K-1 level. They’ve done stuff like vaccinations, levers, irreversible change, and so on.
My oldest is six, so I don’t know much about the shows for older kids. But she has watched some Bill Nye at school, and I saw he had one show all about pseudoscience - go Bill!