3-2-1 Contact facts for kids
Quick facts for kids 3-2-1 Contact |
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Original opening title of 3-2-1 Contact
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| Created by | Samuel Y. Gibbon Jr. |
| Starring | Varied, see article |
| Theme music composer | Tom Anthony |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 225 (and 10 specials) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Children's Television Workshop |
| Distributor | Children's Television Workshop |
| Release | |
| Original network | PBS |
| Audio format | Mono (1980–1984) Stereo (1985–1988) |
| Original release | January 14, 1980 – November 18, 1988 |
3-2-1 Contact was an awesome American TV show that taught kids all about science. It was made by the Children's Television Workshop (the same people who make Sesame Street!). The show was on PBS from 1980 to 1988. Later, you could watch it on Noggin from 1999 to 2002.
The main goal of 3-2-1 Contact was to get young people excited about science. Dr. Edward G. Atkins, who helped create the science parts of the show, believed it would make viewers curious. He hoped it would make them ask lots of questions about how things work in the world.
Contents
Meet the Hosts: Who Taught Us Science?
Over the years, many different people hosted 3-2-1 Contact. They helped explain tricky science ideas in fun ways. Here are some of the hosts who guided viewers through the amazing world of science:
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And as themselves:
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Exploring Science: What Episodes Covered
3-2-1 Contact aired for seven seasons, plus some special episodes. Each week, the show would focus on a different big science idea. For example, one week might be all about "Hot/Cold," and another about "Flight." This helped viewers learn deeply about one topic at a time.
Season 1 (1980): Early Science Adventures
The first season introduced many basic science concepts. Topics included:
- Noisy/Quiet: How sound is made and how our ears work.
- Hot/Cold: Understanding temperature in people, animals, and space.
- Fast/Slow: Exploring speed, rhythms in nature, and time.
- Food/Fuel: Learning about food for animals and humans, and how machines get energy.
- Crowded/Uncrowded: Looking at populations and how materials are packed together.
- Light/Dark: Discovering the sun, how eyes see, and different light sources.
- Big/Small: Comparing sizes of animals and understanding volume.
- Near/Far: How we map and navigate, from home to space.
- Growth/Decay: The cycles of life and how things change over time.
- Communication: How humans and animals talk, and how machines communicate.
- Forces and Motion: Exploring pushes, pulls, gravity, and simple machines.
- Order/Disorder: Looking at patterns in nature and how systems work.
- Surfaces: Understanding protection, shapes, and the Earth's atmosphere.
Later Seasons: More Amazing Discoveries
As the show continued, it explored even more fascinating topics. Here are some examples from later seasons:
- Flight: How animals and machines fly, and the science behind it.
- Sports: The science of movement, energy, and coordination in sports.
- Survival: How living things survive by breathing, controlling temperature, and teamwork.
- Babies: The science of growth, development, and behavior.
- Building: How different materials are used to construct things.
- Shapes: The importance of shapes in nature and engineering.
- Water: Its different forms (gas, liquid, solid) and its role in life.
- Senses: How our taste, smell, sight, hearing, and touch work.
- Space: What it's like to live and work in space.
- Measurement: How we measure length, area, volume, weight, and speed.
- Earth is Change: How our planet changes, including climate and maps.
- Electricity: What it is, how we get it, and how it works.
- Tropics: Exploring resources and endangered animals in tropical regions.
- Light: How we see color and how animals see.
- Farms: The science behind growing plants and raising animals.
- Stuff: Learning about different materials like metals and clay.
- Signals: How we send and receive messages, from talking birds to codes.
- Oceans: Life in and around the sea.
- Motion: How our bodies move and the science of smashing and gripping.
- Eating: The science of food, from teeth to digestion.
- Japan: Exploring the science and culture of Japan, including earthquakes.
- Detectives: Using science to solve mysteries, like finding dinosaur clues.
- Architecture: The science of building homes and other structures.
- Mammals: Learning about different mammals, how they stay warm, and play.
- Modeling: How scientists use models to understand things like the Earth or human body.
- In the Air: How things fly, from birds to amazing flying objects.
- Antarctica: Life on the coldest continent.
- Your Body: Understanding twins, sleep, and health.
- Australia: Exploring unique animals like platypuses and kangaroos.
- Structures: The science of how things are built to be strong.
- Greece: Discovering ancient history and modern life in Greece.
- Island: Learning about island ecosystems and animals like flamingos and coral.
3-2-1 Contact Extra: Special Episodes
The show also had special episodes that focused on important topics. These included:
- I Have AIDS: A Teenager's Story (1989)
- The Rotten Truth (1990)
- You Can't Grow Home Again (1990)
- Down the Drain (1991)
- Bottom of the Barrel (1991)
- Secrets of the Code (1991)
- A Popular Little Planet (1992)
- Get Busy: How Kids Can Save the Planet (1992)
- Brainstorm: The Truth About Your Brain ... (1992)
The 3-2-1 Contact Magazine
Three months before the TV show started, a science magazine with the same name was launched! It was also all about science.
In 1985, the magazine started including parts of another magazine called Enter. This meant 3-2-1 Contact magazine began featuring computer programs written in BASIC (a simple computer language) that readers sent in. It also had reviews of popular computer games. A fun new part was "The Slipped Disk Show," where a made-up DJ answered computer questions from readers.
Later, in 1987, the magazine started sharing content from another CTW show, Square One Television. This often came as a two-page comic strip. These comics usually made fun of popular shows or movies, and then ended with a math question for readers to solve.
The magazine also had mystery stories called The Bloodhound Gang. These were later replaced in 1990 by a series called The Time Team. In these stories, two teenage characters, Sean Nolan and Jenny Lopez, traveled through time! They visited different periods in the past and future. The stories were very detailed, teaching readers about customs from different cultures throughout history. When they traveled to the future, the stories often touched on important issues of the time. For example, one story in 1993 showed them in what looked like a prehistoric forest. But then they found a Brazil flag and a bulldozer, realizing it was actually a Brazilian rainforest being cut down in 1995.
In 1996, The Time Team was replaced by a comic series called Cosmic Crew. This series followed a group of teenagers and their robot butler on adventures in space. In their first big story, they had to solve riddles about places in our solar system to find a treasure. It turned out the treasure was a scholarship fund! In another story, a former villain joined them to chase down other troublemakers. Even though Cosmic Crew took over, a few Time Team stories would still appear if there were gaps between Cosmic Crew installments.
Many of the magazine's main stories were about current events, like the oil fires in the Middle East in the 1990s. The magazine also had a games section, and most of the games were related to the stories in that issue.
Around 1996, the Children's Television Workshop decided that many of the original readers had grown up. So, the magazine started reprinting older stories that were still relevant. For example, an article from 1991 about the geography of the Galápagos Islands might appear again years later, because the islands' protected status meant their geography hadn't changed much.
Eventually, the magazine changed its name to Contact Kids, removing the link to the TV show. The magazine stopped being published in 2001.
