Sid, the Science Kid

Julián M. Riobó & Marina Amartino

“Science is the desire to know causes” (William Hazlitt, English essayist)

This quote describes with simplicity what science is about: the desire to know causes. Now, is it necessary to be a professional scientist to wonder about the world in which we live? Undoubtedly, it is not. Children constitute the embodiment of that desire to know causes. In fact, this has been a relevant topic for psychological research throughout history. According to Erikson, a famous German developmental psychologist and psychoanalist, children during preschool years experience a sense of initiative that makes them explore the world around them. At the same time, it fosters the development of basic educational skills and learning competence. This appears to have been perfectly understood by the creators of “Sid, the science kid”. Combining good content about science and great songs, this TV programme is an appealing approach for young children to have their first encounter with science.  

In each episode of “Sid the science kid”, Sid, the main character, deals with a particular scientific concept, such as what vaccination is about, why the water boils or even how it is that trees are so essential in the cycle of life. Naturally, the list goes on. As mentioned before, in one of the episodes the “science kid” explains why vaccination is not a bad thing in a very simple way. “You get one shot, it hurts just a little bit, you create anti-bodies and stay healthy for a long time”.

The use of catchy songs, whose lyrics are linked entirely to the subject in question, makes the episode more pleasant and engrossing when it comes to children. After putting forward all the reasons why vaccination does not have to be something to be afraid of, Sid wraps up this episode by conveying a message with a concise phrase that goes: “Don’t forget! When you think like a scientist, getting a vaccination is a really good thing. And I think like a scientist because I’m Sid, the science kid!”  

On the other hand, Sid asks questions aiming at finding out explanations for everything that goes on around him. One of the most exciting areas for Sid to dispel his doubts is the “super laboratory”, the   place where he and his little chums investigate and explore, and above all, the place where they have fun and learn at the same time.  The comprehensibility with which scientific facts are explained make children find this TV programme a very interesting way of clarifying their own queries and have a closer contact with science from a very early age.   

Sir Cyril Herman Hinshelwood, English chemist Nobel Prize 1956, once said that science is an imaginative adventure of the mind seeking truth in a world of mystery. “Sid, the Science Kid” shows that “investigation, exploration and discovery” are the necessary steps to seek some truth and to shed light in the world of mystery that surrounds children. What is more, it also demonstrates that learning about science may perfectly go hand in hand with amusement and adventure.

Cars: Successfully Rich vs. Successfully Happy

Brucciamonti Vena, Natalia Paula

What does “success” imply for you? Having the latest things available in the market? Belonging to a specific social class? Producing large sums of money? Having economical power? For Lightening McQueen, the main character from the movie “Cars”, success means all this and much more.

Since the last two or three decades, a capitalist thinking has been introducing deeper and deeper in people’s minds. That’s the reason why probably, nowadays, you don’t consider things as you did in past years. The previously mentioned animated movie reflects the way in which capitalism provoked a change in the value assigned to success. 

According to the foundations of capitalism, the more money you produce, the more success you have. One of the factors that affect production is time. For any business to be profitable, it’s necessary to produce the largest amount possible in the shortest time. The movie shows this relation between time and money in different scenes. An example of this is Route 66. The route was disregarded by the cars when the highway was built. They preferred to shorten the travelling time in order to get faster to their homes, works, etc, than to simply enjoy the trip.

In a capitalist society, being famous is a synonym of being successful. This is shown in the movie through the character of Hudson Hornet. He was a famous racing car in the 50’s. Everybody loved him and he was surrounded by people who were in a high economical position. Because of this, he was considered a successful car. When Hudson had a crash in 1954, he had to be absent from the piston cup. Little by little, people stopped supporting him and they finally forgot him. He was no longer famous, in consequence he wasn’t able to produce big amounts of money, so he was considered unsuccessful.

The previous paragraphs are only two examples taken from the movie, about the way capitalism became the dominant ideology that surrounds the value of success. If you’ve seen “Cars”, probably you could think about many more instances where the main character reflects his capitalist conception of success.  However, in the final minutes of the film, there is a change in Lightening McQueen’s ideas. The final message of the movie is that, to be successful, it isn’t necessary to have a lot of money, to be famous or to relate with people who have economical power. The most important thing that we need to have success in life is enjoying the little things that life gifts us with. In simpler words, if you are happy without the need of money, just by enjoying every moment and person present in your life, you can be considered successful. 

Let me ask you a question: are you happy?

Perseverance and friendship underwater

Julieta Acevedo & Marisa Gallardo

“Finding Nemo” has won the Academy Award for the best animated feature in 2003, has earned $868 millions dollars and has been seen all over the world. It was written by Andrew Staton and produced by Pixar. It tells the story of clownfish Marlin who looks for his son, Nemo, who has been caught by a boat. Values such as friendship and perseverance are shown during this adventure. They make this movie unique for children as nowadays they live in a society where values are not taken into account. 

Marlin is helped by Doris, a regal tang, during his journey. She becomes a great support for him and doesn’t doubt in leaving her life aside and accompanying him in his search for his son. Meanwhile, Nemo is caught in a fishbowl where he meets several friends. Gill, a Moorish idol, tries by all means to help him to escape. Eventually, with the help of his new friends, Nemo finds his way out and meets his father. Through this situation children may learn the real importance of friendship.

Children can easily notice the value of being perseverant when watching the film. In order to find his son, Marlin has to tackle many obstacles such as sharks and jellyfish. No matter the difficulties, he continues his long trip to Sydney in a real act of perseverance and courage. This attitude can be also noticed in Nemo. Due to the attack he suffered when he was still inside his egg, he has a smaller fin.  In spite of the fact that he is handicapped he never gives up in his commitment to be with his father again. 

There are also more values such as cooperation and solidarity reflected in the help that Nemo and Marlin receive during the movie and they are as significant as the previous ones. In our society, where values are most of the times discredited, we can find a movie like Nemo that teaches children the importance of friendship and perseverance.

Immutable Monsters

CHAVES, Camila

Haven’t you ever wondered why Pixar’s movies are so acclaimed? Do you know what the secret underneath Pixar’s success is?

It is taken for granted that Pixar has always found the key to get universal critical acclaim from its movies for children. Since 1995, when Toy Story appeared, the studio has won 26 Academy Awards and its productions have made over $6 billion worldwide. Monsters, Inc is one of Pixar’s movies that has been so successful and popular all over the world that it has forced the filmmakers to speculate about its sequel. The film received extremely positive reviews around the world and it achieved over 50 award nominations, including the Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Film.

However, success does not necessarily go hand in hand with innovation, and surely the filmmakers took this into account when they invented these creatures. Everything the audience see on the surface, such as monsters as the main characters of the film and a whole company which employs them to scare children, makes them think that this popular creation will surprise them with innovation. However, what Monsters, Inc offers them is a traditional stereotyping plot.

An illustration of the traditional plot the story presents lays on the film's main figure. The fact that Sulley is a monster is not enough to differentiate him from all the classic heroes that existed before him. He is good and generous, and he tries to defend innocent people and fair causes. He is the typical strong hero that society has been dealing with since DC’s Batman. Coincidentally or not, as the superhero from Gotham City does, Sulley has an assistant who is always by his side, Mike Wazowski. Traditionally, the hero’s partner is always one step behind him. In the case of Monsters, Inc, apart from the fact that Wazowski lacks one eye, he is smaller and weaker than Sulley. 

Monsters, Inc’s traditional plot also reflects the classic conception of good and evil that almost all children’s movies have kept intact throughout time. In every children’s movie there is always a good character and a bad character, and of course, Monsters, Inc has its good and evil representatives. Typically, the good character differentiates from the bad one by means of physical appearance. It is simply a matter of turning nice into a synonym of good and ugly into a synonym of bad. Here, Sulley is the soft and nice monster that looks like a teddy bear. His antithesis is Randall, a repulsive monster which can be easily compared with a snake. 

In addition, as regards the personality of the film’s characters, Monsters, Inc follows the traditional conception of good and bad present in almost all children’s movies: the good guy is humble and the bad one tends to be egoistic. Here, Sulley is caring and fair and he does not claim for social recognition. As regards Randall, he is cold and cruel and he only thinks about winning at any cost.

Gone is the innovation in Monsters, Inc’s characters’ attributes. This movie does not take the risk of changing the characters’ classical characteristics. The basis of the creativeness of Monsters, Inc’s filmmakers is found in almost all children’s movies. It looks as if the surface of this movie attracts the audience due to the fact that it seems to deal with monsters in a different way. However, in this movie, the key of success is the static conception of characters developed in all children’s movies’ plots.

Zamba; a new alternative on TV for Argentinean children

Jésica Torres & Daniela Pugliese

Children spend a great amount of their time in front of the TV screen. A number of TV channels for children offer their program schedules generating a market directed to young consumers. Argentinean children are everyday exposed to consume television from other countries. They watch cartoons and advertisements that show a reality that does not represent our culture, reality and history.

Within this context, an interesting alternative has been created by the Ministry of Education; Channel Paka Paka. This new TV channel, which is not transmitted in some cable servers and therefore, it is not available for all Argentinean children, contains programs which invite young viewers to discover and participate in the children’s world with educational and cultural contents. In this channel we find “Zamba”, a cartoon of four episodes that entertains and educates Argentinean kids within our culture and history. 

One of the principal characteristics of this cartoon, different from those transmitted in Disney Channel or Discovery Kids, is that it is developed in an Argentinean context. For the first time, our children can watch a cartoon in which the main character is a boy from Formosa called José, nicknamed Zamba.  He goes to a state-run school and wears a white overall. At the begging of each episode, he goes into a school trip with his teacher and partners to different parts of Argentina, where he learns about our history. He visits El Museo del Cabildo, Yapeyú, Casa de Tucumán and La casa de Sarmiento.

In fact, the main aim of the cartoon is to show the audience our origins in an entertaining way bringing back national heroes. Zamba travels to the past. He witnesses and takes part of important events of our history such as the May Revolution and the Independence Day. He meets the protagonists and interacts with them. What is more, Zamba’s idol is not one of the “American Heroes” but a national one as San Martin. The boy demonstrates great admiration for him all along the show and at the end of each program, Zamba and San Martin reflect on what they have learned and they clear up doubts, if any. 

Zamba does not only give value to our culture and identity, but also to our national animation and musical production. The characters on the cartoon speak Spanish with an Argentinean accent, the music used is national, like the zamba, chacarera and tango, and they eat autochthonous food, as chipa. The music played on the show is made by Argentinean musicians such as Soledad Pastoruti and Fito Paez. The animation and scripts are also made and written by national illustrators and writers.

Paka Paka and Zamba do not see our children as the targets of consumption marketing; they do not contain advertisements and their major aim is to educate. Children and parents have now another alternative on TV. Even if children spend their time in front of the TV screen, they won’t be consuming foreign product, but educating themselves in the Argentinean culture and history. However, the channel is not available for all Argentinean children yet. Do kids deserve to have a channel in which the producers are breaking the model of stereotypes imposed by foreign cultures? We proudly say they do

Olivia’s cartoon

Ricchezza, Betina & Vellere, Paola

Nowadays children have contact with technology at a very early age. Most of them usually use computers better than adults. Technology provides with everything they want. Is technology going to replace the traditional games?

Olivia is a sweet piglet girl whose imagination plays an important role in a cartoon which carries her name. Although Olivia’s games are based on imagination, little children, who are usually accustomed to technology and not to imagination games, can identify with her. Olivia, a model for all preschoolers, promotes creativity, confidence and independent thinking.

In every episode Olivia share with her peers role play activities created by her imagination making all her dreams come true, such as being “owner of a restaurant”. Olivia and her friends experiment real-life situations. Simple and every day actions among adults, like ordering a meal, helping a customer or paying bills, are part of the social skills develop through imaginative games by children.

While interactive and electronic games promote strategic and critical thinking allowing children’s intellectual growing, this technology does not help social relationships among them. Throughout the use of devices such as cell phones or computers, children do not have to spend much time in face to face conversations, thus they can not learn good social skills outside their technological life. Technology avoids children’s imagination because everything seems to have already been thought. Playing video games children gain problem solving abilities, memory, quick thinking and valuable information about the surrounding world. However, the technology tools do not provide them a real life environment

Adults who were imaginative children became creative and independent thinkers. Cartoons like “Olivia”, which promotes creative thinking, increase confidence and self-esteem preparing children to become problem solvers in interpersonal situations. Free play is active and physical. It also creates new worlds and portrays real situations. Children who can take part in real-life games will be able to take part in society as adults.

Preschool children are in the pre-operational stage. At this point, in free play, they develop their imagination, ideas, and images. They learn symbols to represent objects in daily life. Anger and fear need to be resolved and imaginative play provides a safe means for this. Olivia is an accurate model of any preschooler despite the fact that children in today’s society are more related to technology than to imaginative games. Although most of children do not take into account this kind of creative activities, all of them are capable of developing such skills as imagination and creativity. Olivia’s cartoon foster children to create new worlds through imagination. The viewers discover that imagination is a great tool to reach whatever they want and to spend time with their friends. Olivia is a good model for kids.  

Wholesome or unwholesome

Nadina González Nomi & Gisela Méndez

Discrimination has been one of the main sources of unfair treatment towards people. Factors such as social class, race, genre, religion and political ideology generate discrimination and, in consequence, inequality. This situation can be perceived in the result of a survey carried out by UNICEF dated 6th May 2011, where 66% of the students polled found themselves having suffered from discrimination.

Discrimination among children often comes from certain sources which are perceived as innocent and wholesome. At a very young age, many children are exposed to movies, whether at the theatre or on videos at home.  One major producer of children’s movies is the Disney Corporation, which has great influence on children`s ideology. Therefore, it is imperative for parents, teachers, and other adults to understand how such films attract the attention and shape the values of the children who buy and view them. The films by Disney Corporation contain many instances of discrimination. A good example of this is ‘Cars’, which portrays certain races and cultures in a negative manner. Discrimination towards those cars that are non- American and those that belong to lower class is perceived all along the movie.

On the surface of ‘Cars’ there is an inclusiveness of different races. However, the truth is that this is just a thin cover. Foreign cars only act the roles of supporting characters and they receive little attention. This can be perceived in Luigi and Guido’s performances. They are Italian cars who have followed races their entire lives. They are portrayed as people who look up to those famous drivers of racing cars that belong to the high class. A clear example of this takes place when a fantastic, red Ferrari arrives at Luigi and Guido’s shop. Neither Luigi nor Guido can believe the arrival of such an important car. This is the moment when they are characterized as stupid people, as people that the only thing they do is to admire the high class, as people who wish they were like high class people. 

Including cars from different countries, the film portrays the working class in a negative way. The main character looks down on those cars that do not belong to the high society. This can be noticed when Mc Queen makes fun of the rusty cars just because of their physical appearance. This can also be perceived when Tow Mater, which is a well-known stereotype of the working class, is underestimated by Mc Queen the moment this rusty car shows Mc Queen how  he usually scares the tractors.  

Although Mc Queen has a strong relationship with working class characters, the friendship gets stronger once Radiator Spring has recovered its popularity and its economy. It is worth taking into account the fact that the less popular, famous and luxurious the town was, the more Mc Queen looked down on her inhabitants.

The way Tow Mater, Luigi and Guido are portrayed shows the fact that the movie is discriminative. This is what children are exposed to and what they take to school. Therefore, discrimination among students occurs constantly. 

Perhaps discrimination will never come to an end. What is important is to be able to be aware of it and to be critical as regards this situation.

Super-Ultra-Hyper-Megazord, Activate!- Mighty Morphin' Power Racists

Valeria Niell

Go, go Power Rangers! How to forget that group of five "overbearing and overemotional teenagers with attitude” , who were endowed with the duty of protecting Earth (actually, just California) from Rita Repulsa,  with the help of mysterious dinosaur forces (Dinozords).

The team was a multicultural mixture of adolescents. The leader, the Red Ranger (Jason), a strong weight-lifting native American; with the power of the T-Rex. The Pink Ranger (Kimberly), a beautiful and healthy American girl; with the power of the Pterodactyl. The Blue Ranger (Billy), the wisest, with power of the Triceratops. The Yellow Ranger (Trini), a Martial Arts expert Asian girl; with the power of the Sabre-toothed Tiger. And the Black Ranger (Zack), an Afro-American break-dancer; with the power of the Mastodon...

Why? Why the colours that they were assigned by sage Zordon are not related to their inner power, but to their skin “colour”? Why couldn't they wear the same colour? Why the black boy has break-dance fighting style? Is it because he is a gangster, like all “black people”? Why, Alpha 5? Why?!

This TV series is stereotypically racist, even though it tries to provide moral values, like Martial Arts are not meant to hurt people, but to defend yourself and the importance of team working to solve problems...But why the black youngster has to control an elephant?  Is it because he comes from Africa, where people are used to see elephants? (In fact, in one episode, he was the only one who could defeat a Lion, one of Rita's minions).

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is full of racist epitomes. Let's take Rita Repulsa. Her name has a Latin hint. Why couldn't she be named “Michelle Phillips” or “Mean Lady”? Is it because calling her “Rita”, like my neighbour, gives her an extra-disgusting evilness?... And her brother's name was Rito Revolto...

Another example is the first leader of the team, Jason. Why was he given the Red Power? Probably because he is a native American...and his red skin matches perfectly the Red Power Suit... And sadly he didn't last much as the leader because he was replaced by the White Tommy, I mean, the White Ranger.

“Yo, Alpha, “wassup”!” … Yes, that is Zack, the Black Ranger, who sounds like a rapper gangster, and he was given a gun. Along with the Dinozord Powers, the Rangers were given weapons like swords, axes, crossbows...but the Black Ranger was given a gun. Because black people like guns.

Why this TV programme had to be so mean to their characters? Didn't Zack feel offended when he read the plot and his lines? What did the other members think about the heavy amount of stereotypes?

Maybe it is not appropriate for an Afro-American to be a White Ranger, because he would feel funny by wearing white or maybe because he would not look as good as “Tommy”, the last Ranger to join the team...At first he was the Green Ranger because he was the bad guy, but when he left the Dark Side, he was given the Power of the White Ranger, to control a Dragon...And as I said before,  he became the leader until the end of the three seasons. 

Maybe Billy had to be the Blue Ranger because wearing a brown suit wouldn't match his blue eyes. 

And maybe Trina has Yellow Powers because she is always wearing yellow shorts. And she doesn't need to wear a skirt because it is too feminine for a martial artist (?)

Who knows, maybe Kimberly is allergic to orange or grey. That is why she had to wear the Girly Pink Skirt Power Suit...

There are too many questions and too many doubts that the universe may never answer... Maybe because the truth is too much for our brains to handle, or maybe because the creator of the Power Rangers thought that if they wore their “typical racial skin colours”, they would be easier to identify. For example, I remember that the black guy was the Black Ranger, and I also remember that he looked good wearing black shirts.