The Magic School Bus: Gets Programmed

seat belts everyone please let this be a normal field trip with a friend no way strolling down that main street you're relaxed and feeling good next thing you know you're seeing nostrils get on the bus

school

, unlock the classrooms, unlock the bathrooms, prepare attendance. leaves man i can't believe we have to do all these things before

school

starts and there's more there must be an easier way to do all of this there's ralphie find another class to do it but all the other classes have done it wanda's ours turn to open school relax guys there must be a way to do all these chores without having to do them hey boy i've been dreaming that dream for years this just came from mr roon he said he was waiting for him and he asked you kids to set it up oh no not another thing to do ok we better get to work the rules school will start before you know it I wonder what's in here good morning class sir rules. a computer that's it we'll have the computer do our job great idea yeah a computer hmm computers have helped men and women live in space doing some tasks should be a piece of cake make that be a piece of cake a state of the art 2000 maniac eniac with a gazillion gigabyte hard drive more ram than a traffic jam and a flippity-floppity zippity-doo-dah floppy drive cool let's set it up and go I officially declared this baby is ready to the action, go ahead carlos turn it on don't forget the printer got it oh-oh it stopped how do we get it to do something right now? this computer is just an idle machine it needs instructions to tell it what to do which instructions we can't get to our tasks because we don't know how it works well we better figure it out quick what we need is someone who really knows computers we need an expert someone call me hey frizzlers i was getting there early to clean my desk when i heard your cry for help oh mikey look what your big brother has for you wow manic fresh out of the box we need you to do whatever you have to do to get me through all the morning chores no problem mikey he's a genius when it comes to computers a chip off my own block well since classes start in half an hour i think we should take our chances make mistakes and let mikey carry the workload you know a computer can do a lot more than just display images on a screen here carlos attach this to the flagpole yeah yeah computer man and keisha how about we hook this up to the coffee machine in the staff room?

Arnold, this one goes to the doorbell, this one is for the sprinkler valve timer and who wants to connect it to the door control, I'll do that. here you go wanda mission accomplished mikey all plugged in all done mikey great now say hello to the people carlos hi how are you nice to see you thanks for coming to school and enjoy your perfect day now i'll write this tell him to do this now i'll save what i wrote benito friends written and stored instructions just click the school icon and watch your jobs get done hello how are you?

You need a professional call bro yeah well I guess I better go clean my desk now boy I'd love to know what it's like in there I mean what really happens to my instructions once I take them oh now there is a question. you can save to a file called great idea for a field trip a safe field trip and why don't you go try it with me you mean it can get into the computer what about us we have school to open remember so mikey put on your headphones for your own awesome tour my own personal tour have fun mikey we said have fun will it carlos ready to be tweaked miss frizzle well then how would my micro cousin chip say take a chance do like a floppy it's the quick way to send instructions inside hey what it's going on out there hello how are you nice to see you thanks for coming to school and enjoying your day is it just me or is the computer doing everything on our list again definitely something is wrong with the computer and mike is the only one who can fix it and mikey is inside the computer mikey what are we going to do what are we going to do what are we going to do we have to fix it before mr rule arrives turn it off turn it off we can't do that d.a something terrible could happen to mikey we have to get it back excuse me boy would you mind telling me what's going on here mr mclean we're having a little technical difficulty but i'm sure we'll be all right in no time ok class ok i better go check on you in the staff room mikey mikey a computer is complicated. from the headphones oh you're right crooks i forgot maybe mikey did something in there that made the computer go crazy no my brother mikey he knows what he's doing i think maybe we better go in and get him out before mr rule

gets

here oh what a brilliant idea phoebe don't you love it when they do problem solving liz get ready to go upstairs wait a minute we can't all go what if mr mclean comes back or mr rule is early you're right i'll stay behind and so will liz i'll see you in a little arnold a disk in a basket the bus will turn into a floppy disk if we ask it so this is where the floppy disks go to the drive-in carlos look at that big twist hey what's up the metal toothbrush sliding across the disk oh he's reading instructions and other information stored on the floppy disk the information stored on a disk is transformed into electrical signals and sent to the main body of the computer um miss frizzle is that thing going to read us i mean it's getting pretty close don't worry ralphie, okay, bus, do your thing, so where's mikey? flashing electric signs right right so if we follow the signs we find a thinking right monkey wanda just follow the yellow lit path and like I always say why walk when you can skateboard right through from the motherboard? where we are?

What is this place? motherboard the heart of the computer is full of wires and the wires carry electrical signals just like the ones that come from our floppy disk this must be the way information travels around the computer it turns into express electricity just electrifying isn't it class To whom is the information directed? for that big square little thing in the middle of the motherboard maybe mikey is here come on no no mikey whats going on there anyway its all the wires and lights this part of the computer is in charge of everything that goes on inside drives every bit of information that goes in and out you mean the computer headquarters just like the principal's office so it's called the central processing unit or the cpu for short gee the information doesn't stay in the cpu for a long time it sends back so mikey must have come to the cpu and then gone somewhere else come on let's keep following the information he has to be here somewhere bravo you just entered the computer's random access memory aka ram a computer can't follow a list of instructions if i can't remember them these ram chips hold the instructions while the cpu follows them cool what's going on here the whole school has gone crazy a thing about being in class miss rizzle is never boring oh no hey guys you gotta do something quick no thats not the way to input information into the computer oh i know help mr mclean is on the flagpole and the buses are coming carlos mikey enjoy your day hurry up there what's the problem? what is the problem?

They're coming, they're here now, that means Mr. Roo won't be left behind. I have it. We know Mikey is here somewhere. the school to start where else the information goes wait wait wait mikey said that I keep his instructions permanently remember you are right Juan so where is the information stored on this computer oh excellent question carlos you store the information that you want to keep on the hard drive the disk hard where is that oh i think it's that way i think you can hear us let's get down carlos what are you doing here? We have been looking everywhere for you.

Something is wrong with the computer. But I've been checking this computer out and it's working great. The information comes from the keyboard and the floppy disk and they're turned into electrical signals just like they're supposed to and the CPU decides what to do with them everything's okay in here but it's not okay out there we have to get out of here now the computer is doing what our jobs over and over again don't worry as computers send information too we're going to bring it we'll just get out with the quick output this information is on its way to the printer we're going with the floor this frizz is coming. they're printing fine but do your thing oh you're back you're back you're back thank you hold on to us hi how are you freaking out here the flag is going up over and over again and the sprinklers are flooding the lawn and mr roll will be here any minute well no dude let's figure this out what are you doing mikey printing my show show what's a show for you miss frizzle hype it up while i write my pleasure mikey a computer is just a machine it needs instructions to tell it what to do and how to do it that's what a program is a list of instructions that the computer understands and if there is even a small error in the program everything goes completely so you think maybe you made a little mistake in what you told the computer to make a mistake on me i doubt it but there is a first time for everything here is your program mikey looks good to unlock and open the doors raise the flag light the sprinklers turn off the sprinklers printer recorded messages coffee machine buzzer but what is this repeats everything every minute except saturday and sunday every minute is supposed to say every day i made a mistake its the only way to risk and get dirty no no wonder everything turns on and off every minute the computer is doing exactly what you told it to in the program which is what all computers do well if we program them correctly they do what we want but if we put garbage in we take out the garbage yes a computer is only as smart as the person putting the instructions i can fix this in a gif i'll just change the word minute today and store this new improved program on the hard drive benito folks let's try it we are up and running good morning everyone Hello how are you?

It is a pleasure to see you, thank you for coming to school and enjoying your day. hmm, there's no one out there. along for a bit oh you did i saw you set up my new computer like i asked but did i say anything about programming it? uh no, we just thought, don't you know how to follow the instructions? the fact that that's all it knows how to do is make the computer only as smart as the instructions you give it and mikey gave it some good ones and i'm supposed to be pleased with this because i'm not. i've had enough of your brilliant ideas mr mclean my mr rule would like some coffee sir thank you mr mclean but just think thanks to miss frizzle's class we will never have to make coffee ourselves again we won't nope the computer is going to do it is of course we had some problems at first but where would we all be if no one made a mistake the correct class is you know liz i'm glad we made the computer program i mean how often do we get to see how a computer works from the inside hey do you think that thing could give me a cup of coffee

magic

school bus the producer talks hello i just saw your computer program and i was wondering if you can actually see the information that travels inside a computer i wish you could , but the information is transformed into electronic signals that are invisible.

So how come we saw the information as flashes of light? It was our way of making the electronic signs visible and then we scaled them down so the kids could follow them. the fact that electrical impulses travel so fast why can a computer follow instructions as fast as ram the computer can read information faster than you or i could read or write it or even think its ok i buy all that but can you really do a computer does jobs like children, since computers can turn switches on and off, anything that can be powered by a motor can be powered by a computer, although there are many more steps to running a program than we had time to show , the idea is the same you give the computer instructions to the keyboard or the floppy disk, the CPU on the motherboard makes decisions based on the instructions and the computer stores them so it can be used over and over again as needed, but the inside of a computer is much more complicated than what you showed yes but all the parts are basically the same disk drive motherboard cpu hard drive thanks i understand the picture bye oh thanks but not anymore wanna. full day let's go