CAST:
Bill Nye as Bill Nye (Professional Science Guy)
Bill Nye was the adorably charismatic lab jacket-clad- nerd who hosted the show. Little did we know he did not actually have a degree in science but rather engineering (scandalous!) Still, he explained everything the grade school curriculum wanted us to know while still keeping our attention and having fun. You can still see him today as an expert on shows like CNN, explaining to the public complex scientific problems like the BP oil spill to the general layman public. If you check out his fanpage on Facebook, you will also see he is very interested in space travel. I guess it just goes to show you don’t have to be a doctor of the sciences to become famous for your involvement in science and its contribution to society. Science rules!
Kids as Themselves
Every episode also featured a chorus of rambunctious kids to explain their own segments of the show, sing and dance along with music videos, and have a great time with Bill exploring science. How cool would it be to have that job at the age of ten?
PREMISE:
Basically, the show had an ADD friendly structure that was constantly moving from one short segment to another, explaining scientific concepts on given themes from Pluto to boogers. Each show had it’s own theme, and the segments often involved cool experiments, parodies, music videos, and people randomly shouting “science rules!” Bill Nye the Science Guy was like a giant badly needed advertising campaign for the sciences, and people loved it.
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| Bill Nye... or maybe Kim Mitchell. |
Balls + spoons + ethnic children = science! |
WHY DID I WATCH THAT?:
The reason why I watched (and loved) Bill Nye the Science Guy because it was constantly fresh, creative, and engaging. Bill Nye the Science Guy treated its audience (the kids) with the recognition that kids were also active participants in a process of exploration -- that science (and learning) were something that belonged to us as well, not just the adult world. This was something very new and foreign for our generation, and it certainly wasn’t a popular attitude among the adults in our lives. Bill Nye the Science Guy made us fall in love with learning and see education as an adventure. Even now, Bill Nye’s approach has radically changed the way I look at education.
