The Zula Patrol: Explore Space and Explore Weather DVDs - Making Sense of Science

“Since when is watching television about needing anything other than some fun down time for kids and some coveted solo bathroom time for parents?“

The Zula Patrol accomplishes both of these objectives, while introducing kids to science concepts in a way they can understand and appreciate. Really, what’s not to like about that?

The two DVDs that our bloggers and their children screened - Explore Space and Explore Weather - each included four episodes of The Zula Patrol, a science-themed cartoon that airs on PBS. These bloggers were glad for the opportunity because they’ve got kids who love science - and they don’t always feel equipped to answer their kids’ questions. One mother admitted: “I worry that some of my kids will inherit my not-good-at-math-and-science brain…I know I would not do an adequate job explaining it in a way my 4-year old would understand, but the Zula Patrol did.” Another looked forward to viewing the DVD because “My kids are constantly asking me about weather - CONSTANTLY. Selfishly, I hoped that the DVD would answer some of their incessant questions, and keep the illusion that I was really more intelligent about weather than I appear.”

Both DVDs include four episodes geared toward either space or weather. In Explore Weather, “Chilly Cook-off gives the lowdown on temperature, from freezing to boiling and everything in between. Treasure in the Clouds explains, in kid-friendly detail, the different types of clouds and what types of weather they produce. Wish You Were Here takes a tour through the four seasons, and the pros and cons thereof. And in Weather Vain, Zeeter learns that trying to make the weather bend to meet your own selfish needs is a recipe for disaster.” Likewise, in Explore Space, the episodes include: “The Probe Who Came to Dinner, Forget-Me-Naut, Moons Mayhem, and Three Ringed Gorga.”

The character Gorga was definitely a hit. One blogger described her reaction and her daughter’s:

“She immediately fell in love with the character Gorga.

Gorga is a space…pet…animal…creature…thing. I’m getting a little hung up here already. All the characters are sentient outer space beings of some sort - not human, that’s for sure - and Gorga is an alien creature, too…but obviously Gorga is of some lower “pet caste”, even though he communicates with his own language and can make flashlights and fish nets appear from the end of his snout…

My daughter just thought Gorga was very, very cute.

See, this is why the target audience is six year olds and not middle-aged pseudo-intellectuals.“

The target audience actually ranges from four to eight years old, but these DVDs were well-received by kids both inside and outside that range. One mother noted: “The first time I popped in the DVD for the kiddos, the only one who didn’t watch it was my almost 12-year old too cool for everything kid. The rest of them watched, quite captivated. So, that’s a 4-year old, 5-year old and 9-year old who were entertained by Zula Patrol.” Another agreed: “Explore Weather was a huge hit with my four youngest children, who all eagerly sat through repeated viewings.”

As before, both the kids and the parents learned a thing or two. One blogger, whose kids didn’t understand the implications of temperature, enthused that “they now for sure know that at 32 degrees Farenheit, water freezes and they know that that’s cold! So, understanding temperature is helpful in explaining what outerwear I wish for them to wear on any particular day.” Another recalled: “I asked her if she learned anything and she did, in fact, quote information about astronauts and space probes and actually remembered the names of the potato-shaped moons.”

This mother commented on the value of early scientific learning: “Just as the importance of exposing your children to other languages from an early age can be developmentally advantageous, exposing them to the language of science can be key in our technologically advanced world. [My son] was easily able to explain to me what a cumulus cloud is after watching this show, something I personally don’t remember learning until an advanced grade school age.”

While these parents are glad to expose their young children to science, the kids are truly interested in learning these concepts. One blogger explained, “Anyone who reads this blog knows off my son’s unyielding obsession with space-related subjects. He knows how many moons Saturn has, what the planet Mercury is made of and isn’t shy about expressing his opinion on how Pluto should really be considered a planet instead of a star.” Another commented: “My kindergartner is big into science right now - every library book she checks out is science- or nature-themed - so the Zula Patrol is a perfect fit for her.” One boy even shared the Zula Patrol with his class at school: “[My son] has been learning about weather in school and doing weather science experiments so this DVD was a chance to bring a bit of that theme home for him too. The first thing he found was the pack of planet window clings inside the front cover of the DVD. He snagged them immediately. I thought I’d find them plastered all over his bedroom window, but instead he took the to school and they’re on display in the classroom windows.”

Unfortunately, the Zula Patrol was a little scary for one mother who admitted: “I got freaked by the evil robot space clowns in the Three Ringed Gorga episode and had to sleep with the lights on for three nights. [My daughter] thought the clowns were hilarious and noted evil robot space clown in her journal of potential future Halloween costumes.” But the character Dark Truder really did upset one little girl:

“This guy scared the crap out of [my daughter]. She pressed herself against me when he first popped up on the screen and about three minutes later she turned to me, lower lip quivering, and said, Mummy, I don’t want to watch this anymore. He scares me.

And that was it. She flat-out REFUSED to watch any more of it. I offered to fast-forward through the parts with Dark Truder in it, to no avail – she’d been good and spooked and since she was literally on the verge of tears, I didn’t press it.“

But for the rest of the kids, the Zula Patrol was met with unanimous approval. In one family, “this DVD became a van DVD - which is high praise indeed in our house - only the truly fun DVDs make their way out to the van, to be watched again and again as we make our way from school to soccer, from scouts to the grocery store.”

The Zula Patrol: Explore Space and Explore Weather DVDs are available exclusively at Borders, and they’re ideal for any budding young scientist!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Elementary School, Kids, Media, Pre-school. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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The Zula Patrol: Explore Space and Explore Weather DVDs - Making Sense of Science

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