"Cartoon shows are a perfect place to repeat themes and songs played over and over again." "The Bortronians are all about failure," Bartlett said. One called "Scientific Method" teaches kids the principles of the scientific method, and another, called "Try Again Ditty," is about the importance of perseverance. īartlett also discussed some of the songs in the show. Mindy was added last to ask questions that 4-year-olds might ask. Sean is the practical, scientific-method guy, whereas Sidney is a science-fiction fan who embodies imagination. Jet, the alien character, was created first, and then the team came up with Sean and Sidney. The imagination topic led to a discussion about "Ready Jet Go!" characters. "And both fields are creative and use imagination." "It's about collaboration and a large group of people - the sum-is-greater-than-the-parts thing that goes on in this kind of work," he said. That's basically what kids do when they play … In a lot of ways, we're like big kids playing with the other big kids trying to solve really hard problems."īartlett saw parallels between Mainzer's group working together to get big space projects approved and his group trying to launch "Ready Jet Go!" "It's very much about teamwork and partnering up with the people who you work with and depend on and trust to solve really hard problems and figure things out," Mainzer said.
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"Seeing other portrayals of women and other people who look like you who are doing science and going 'Oh, I could do that too,' are some of the contributing factors," Swennen added.Ī stereotype the show would like to break is that scientists work alone in a dark room. It would help if the media brought role models in these fields to kids' attention, and if low-income families had access to computers or computer-science education, she said. Google has done some research and found these barriers to be both psychological and logistical, Swennen said. "What are the barriers to girls getting into science, or even lower-socioeconomic-status kids who aren't being exposed on a regular basis to scientific topics - what are the barriers to getting them interested in these areas?" she asked. Simensky also broached the subject of STEM. Because I've had plenty of chances, and that's really wonderful and special." "It's really impressive to me how solid the science is with the show and how much opportunity we have for feedback on the science," Mainzer said. She says she hasn't gotten many questions because the people behind the show have done research on their own. Mainzer also commended PBS and the "Ready Jet Go!" group for being committed to getting the science right. That's one of the really cool things about the show is, we were able to hold off on doing the Pluto episodes until we got the results from New Horizons literally that day."
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It got a little ugly in 2006 when they made a decision. "It's gonna be like the Hatfields versus the McCoys. "There will probably be a massive fight among astronomers," Mainzer said. "What happens if they reinstate Pluto?" she asked, referring to the International Astronomical Union's contentious 2006 decision to reclassify Pluto from "planet" to "dwarf planet." Will the show need to be re-edited?