The Magic School Bus, Episode 32: "Shows and Tells"

If you were an American kid going to elementary school in the 90s, chances are that you remember "The Magic School Bus," with its catchy theme song and eccentric teacher Ms. Frizzle.  This episode focuses on a show and tell competition, with students competing to see who "shows" the best object and then does the best "tell" about it to win a huge, shiny trophy.

Arnold brings in an unknown object that belonged to his great aunt, famous archaeologist Arizona Joan.  (Arizona Joan…Indiana Jones!)  When Arnold was little, she told stories about how she searched for things left behind by people a long time ago and how she tried to figure out how people lived based on the stuff she found.   Arnold's Mom said that "her entire life was a voyage of discovery."

From 3:47-4:12, Arizona Joan is shown lying rope lines and brushing off dirt, which is characteristic of true archaeology.  However, she also finds whole objects.

The main focus of this episode is finding out what this mystery hoop object is.  One classmate asks, "how do we figure out what this thing is if the people who used it aren't around to tell us?"  At this point, Ms. Frizzle examples that it is called an artifact and defines artifact in a way that is both accurate and makes sense to kids.  The episode approaches archaeology as a science that uses scientific method and hypothesis testing.  They use Arizona Joan's journal to generate hypotheses, which are then tested with the "suppositron," where the students are put into super-cool Magic School Bus virtual reality to learn interactively.

Tribal people: feathers and bows and arrows?

Components in this episode that I questioned were:

The ever-eccentric Ms. Frizzle

• The representation of tribal people (8:48 and 13:12): Is this a fair and accurate depiction?
• Ms. Frizzle's archaeologist clothes (13:42): Of course, her dress is as eccentric as ever, but it is themed with brown towns, archaeological tools, and small artifact bits.
• The statement that the archaeologist makes a copy of the artifact to test while the original is kept safe: I don't understand how this is possible.

At the conclusion of the episode, the class learns and concludes that the decorated hoop and arrows are an early dartboard-type game.  They have learned and demonstrated how archaeologists fit clues together to learn about people of the past

During the sort of epilogue to the episode (23:20-25:00), Liz the Lizard does a mini excavation, which seems pretty reliable in how it is carried out.  Narration also addresses the notion of archaeologists as adventurers and clarifies it, saying that although they visit exciting places, there is a lot of work to be done.  It can talk days or weeks to dig out one artifact and they must be careful to label everything.  It is also brought up that only archaeologists should do the digging, otherwise information can be lost.  There is a great emphasis on finding artifacts and learning about how people lived long ago.

Liz the Lizard digging for artifacts

Watching "The Magic School Bus" brought back a sense of nostalgia for me.  It still holds my attention, fifteen years after it has been off of tv.  Go ahead and watch the whole episode and see if you feel the same way!

What's Right?
Defines archaeology, shows an excavation, does not portray artifacts as treasure.
What's Wrong?
Representation of tribal people, makes out archaeology to be rigid.
Grade: B+