Bill Nye, the Science Guy

　　In America one of the ways they think that students can get involved in learning and the start appreciating studying is by making shows that are fun for them to watch and learn at the same time.

　　This is definitely a great idea.Shows such as "Sesame Street" and "Barney" have helped young children learn the alphabet, learn to count, read, and even learn important lessons such as sharing and not fighting.

　　At an age of 8-10, these shows will wear off your child.They will think, "Why am I watching a show made for babies?"If you have ever seen Sesame Street or Barney, you know that many children over 8 years old will not appreciate it the same.So the programming departments down at the big television companies came up with a show named "Bill Nye, the Science Guy".

　　I have nothing against this show.It was a great show.It was all about science.The show stars a very funny, weird, and interesting fellow named, Bill Nye.

　　It gives a boring subject like the molecular structure of animals and turns itsintosa big wild showswheresa lot of very humorous and very interesting things happen, including experiments and jokes and the like.

　　Even now at the age of 15, I will sit and watch it (only if I'm really bored) and learn something from it.

　　At a certain point in the school year, Ms. S had some problems with keeping her classes attention.Wait, I correct myself, a "certain point" is not the right description of it.There was a certain pointswheresshe lost control and never gained it back for the remainder of the year.We call that point the first week of school.Now during the second quarter of school, she was just not even a teacher figure anymore.She stood in the front and read directly out of her "teacher's edition science book" which had all the answers and gave her the pseudo-appearance of knowing all the information.During these reading sessions she noticed that none of this information was sticking with the kids.This isswheresBill Nye, the science guy, came in to the picture.

　　It's not a bad idea to show your students a video when they are bored.It keeps them interested in the class.So this was almost a good idea for Ms. S.We watched an episode of Bill Nye about the section that we were learning.I would much rather watch Bill Nye's exciting little antics than to listen to Ms. S read from a book.After the show, she gave out a worksheet.The worksheet encompassed many things we should have learned from the episode of Bill Nye.So we used what we learned from the show to do the worksheet.Now that's not a bad idea.

　　Remember Bill Nye is directed towards 8 to 10 year olds.It was entertaining at first just because it was so corny and silly.The main attraction was the humor and the jokes, not information.We were now either 13 or 14 years old.Everyday we walkedsintosclass; we got another episode and another worksheet.

　　By now, if people would ask, "Who's your science teacher?"

　　Half the class would respond proudly, "Bill Nye".

　　As we watched Bill Nye, Ms. S would sit at her desk and do whatever she wanted to.

　　This went on for a surprising four or five days until good old Steve went up to Ms. S one day and said, "Ms. Nye, I mean Ms. S can I go to the bathroom?"Everyone giggled under his or her breaths at the obvious insult to her laziness.No teacher sits back and plays a video everyday for 5 days straight.

　　After the word spread through the school that the new teacher in room 213 was Bill Nye, Ms. S stopped the videos out of shame and went back to trying to teach to her class "normally".