Kiddipedia
Introducing Elmo, Cookie Monster and Abby Cadabby like you’ve never seen them before!
Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organisation behind decades of award-winning educational programming, has launched a spinoff called Sesame Street Mecha Builders, with the beloved characters re-imagined as 3D robot heroes-in-training, who use their STEM superpowers to solve larger-than-life problems.
Not only will the Sesame Street Mecha Builders series put a smile on the faces of kids, as well as anyone who loves the Sesame Street characters, but it will also help kids practice foundational critical thinking skills. The series focuses on STEM education – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics – to encourage children to think critically.
Tackling a wide range of STEM-related concepts, such as properties of matter, light and shadows, force and motion, and simple machines like pulleys and levers, the friends get into all kinds of situations, whether they’re using a wedge to split a giant banana for an ice cream statue or learning how to measure cables for a zipline through the trees.
Each episode begins with a problem — a runaway train, an Earth-bound asteroid, a broken movie screen or a wayward boulder, and the friends try a series of fixes and solutions, not always getting it right the first time, but trying until they find an answer.
“That’s how kids learn, right? You’re not going to get it right the first time. And what we like to model is what these characters are doing: They’re really heroes-in-training, so there’s a lot of trial and error,” says Kay Wilson Stallings, EVP, Creative and Production, Sesame Workshop. “You just have to have perseverance and you have to do a little creative problem-solving before you end up with the right solution.”
The Mecha Builders’ motto is ‘Plan it. Test it. Solve it.’ This motto is repeated in every episode. “First we planned it. We thought about ways to solve the problem,” says Abby. Elmo then says: “Then we tested it. We tried different ideas and didn’t give up.” Finally, Cookie Monster finishes with: “Then we solved it. We found a solution and saved the day.”
Sesame Street Mecha Builders helps children develop a better understanding of how things work, and builds stronger cognitive reasoning, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, all of which are important skills for kids to learn, according to Dr Rosemarie Truglio, Senior Vice President of Curriculum and Content at Sesame Workshop.
“Young children start to understand STEM concepts related to the natural and physical world quite early. When STEM topics are introduced in child-friendly ways that are relatable, they can learn what might seem like complicated concepts. Children learn how to observe and ask questions. They develop their ability to collect and consider new information and draw conclusions about what they see,” she says.
Sesame Street Mecha Builders airs each weekday on ABC Kids at 4.35pm, and is also available on ABC iview and the ABC Kids app.
