Ms. Frizzle's kid sister Fiona takes the wheel at Walkerville Elementary, leading the class on wild adventures packed with science-fueled fun.
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00:00You're relaxed and feeling good, next thing that you know you're seeing.
00:18There's a bus in the neighborhood, surfin' on a sound wave, swingin' through the stars.
00:29Take a left at your intestine, take your second right past Mars on the Magic School Bus.
00:35Navigate a nostril, climb on the Magic School Bus, spank a fainting tooth.
00:41On our Magic School Bus, raft a river of lava, on the Magic School Bus, such a fine thing to do.
00:49So stop, so strap your bones right to the seat, come on in and don't be shy.
00:55Just to make your day complete, you might get baked into a pie on the Magic School Bus.
01:01So stop, stop, stop and slide into Wilderide, come on, ride on the Magic School Bus.
01:11Okay, I'm ready, but I am kind of nervous. I've never really told a story before.
01:18You'll be fine, just take a deep breath and maybe stop making that face.
01:25Okay, my story is called Goldilocks and the Triumvirate of Ursine Predators.
01:30Is it all?
01:31You mean the three bears?
01:33Yes, although now that I think about it, the average litter of cubs is 2.5.
01:38Let me start over.
01:40Goldilocks and the 4.5 Bears.
01:43Yay, it's about the story, not about the numbers.
01:46I calculated a 78% chance you'd say that.
01:50You know, Dorothy Anne, maybe storytelling isn't your thing.
01:52I know it isn't, but tell my parents that.
01:55They're master storytellers. They go to festivals and everyone loves them.
02:00And they've always said that one day I'd get to join them and wow the crowd with a story of my own.
02:05And now that day is only 79,243,000 milliseconds away.
02:11That's like tomorrow.
02:13Which is why I need to practice.
02:15How am I going to wow anybody if I don't even know how many bears I'm talking about here?
02:20You know, D.A., there's a trick to almost everything.
02:23And the trick to telling a great story is to feel it deep down inside of you just bursting to get out.
02:29I get that feeling, but what's bursting to get out usually isn't a story.
02:34What kind of story are you talking about, Miss Frizzle?
02:37How about something huge, life-altering, earth-changing?
02:41Like what?
02:42That sounds great.
02:43My parents would love it.
02:45Wonderful.
02:46Then let's put the practicing on ice for a while and find D.A. a story.
02:51Woo-hoo!
02:52Yes!
02:53Come on, woo!
02:54On ice?
02:55Hold on.
02:56Is she talking in vaguely disguised wordplay?
02:58Sounds like we're going somewhere cold.
03:00You kids snow me too well.
03:02To the bus, everyone!
03:04Yay!
03:05Meal trip!
03:06Woo!
03:09Whoa!
03:11Look at the size of that glacier!
03:13What exactly is a glacier anyway?
03:15According to my research, it's a river of ice that only forms on land and is always on the move.
03:20Here, check it out on these charts and tables.
03:23Or maybe jump out of the plane.
03:25See it for real.
03:26I don't know.
03:27Well, I'm in.
03:28Or should I say out?
03:30No way!
03:31What?
03:32You guys act like you've never jumped out of a plane before.
03:34Huh?
03:35Yahoo!
03:37Ready for the action to snowball, Jodi?
03:40Roger that.
03:41Always!
03:42Press your record!
03:45Whoa!
03:47What happened to Jodi?
03:49She disappeared!
03:54Well, she makes a beautiful special snowflake.
03:57That's what happened.
03:58I want to try it.
03:59Me too!
04:00Here we come!
04:01Okay, let's go.
04:03See you on the other side!
04:04Yahoo!
04:06Whee!
04:07All right!
04:08Uh, oh no.
04:10Ah!
04:12Ah!
04:13Release your record!
04:22Whoa!
04:24Whoa!
04:25Wow!
04:26Wow, cool!
04:27Woohoo!
04:29Yeah!
04:30Woohoo!
04:32Yeah, I'm pretty sure this wasn't on my permission slip.
04:41Loving this, Ms. Brizzle, but what exactly am I sitting in?
04:45And do you want to know?
04:50Mine smells smoky, like ash.
04:53Dust over here.
04:55Let me clean it.
04:57Salty.
04:58Mine must be...
04:59Ah!
05:00Ah!
05:01Ah-choo!
05:02Pollen.
05:03And I'm thinking mine is good old dirt.
05:05I guess pure driven snow isn't always pure.
05:08Truer words have never been spoken, Jodi.
05:11If it's blowing around on the wind,
05:13ice crystals can and will form around it.
05:19Ah!
05:20Incoming!
05:21Ah!
05:22Ah!
05:23Ah!
05:24Ah!
05:25Ah!
05:26Incoming!
05:27Ah!
05:28Ah!
05:29Ah!
05:30Ah!
05:31Ah!
05:32Ah!
05:33Ah!
05:34Ah!
05:35Ah!
05:36Ah!
05:37Ah!
05:38No!
05:39Ah!
05:40Ah!
05:41Woohoo!
05:42Woo!
05:43Woohoo!
05:44Woohoo!
05:45Ah!
05:46Ah!
05:47Ah!
05:48Ah!
05:49Ah!
05:50Ow!
05:51Ow!
05:52I feel like the middle of a submarine kid witch.
05:55Uh-oh!
05:56Get ready to feel even more squished!
05:58Here comes the bus!
06:02Oh no!
06:03Yellow snow!
06:04Yellow snow!
06:06Ah!
06:08Ah!
06:09Ah!
06:13Well done, class!
06:15Climacteric layering just the way a glacier's made.
06:18A glacier has layers?
06:20Like of snow and ice and all the stuff we're carrying?
06:23Oh yeah, just layer after layer of ice and snow and stuff and ice and snow and stuff.
06:30Ugh!
06:31I can't take the pressure!
06:34Hmm.
06:35The snow must be really heavy.
06:37It is!
06:38But I met the pressure of coming up with my story!
06:40Ms. Frizzle, how is this supposed to help?
06:43Hmm.
06:44Well, to find out, we must explore galore!
06:47Back to the bus, everybody!
06:54Ah!
06:58D.A., when Ms. Frizzle said explore, I think she meant to actually look where we are in real life!
07:05I am exploring, Keisha!
07:07Just in my own way!
07:08Wow!
07:09Did you guys know Earth has huge amounts of glacial ice?
07:13That's 10% of our entire land area!
07:16Wow!
07:17That's more numbers than I can count!
07:19Hmm.
07:20I wonder how many snowflakes it took to make that much ice!
07:24Ms. Frizzle, can you initiate the bus' number cruncher mode?
07:27Well, we do need most of our power to climb this incredibly steep glacier.
07:32Please!
07:33Oh, how can I resist when you say please with three extra E's?
07:38Okay, if you insist!
07:43Great!
07:44I'll just type in the question, how many snowflakes did it take to make the Earth's glaciers?
07:48And crunch!
07:59Whoa, whoa, whoa!
08:01She's pushing the number cruncher to maximum chomp!
08:04Uh-oh!
08:08D.A., don't do it!
08:10Crunching numbers and scaling an icy slope is a lot for one bus, magic or not!
08:16Huh?
08:18D.A., we're slipping!
08:20Shut it down!
08:21But it's almost finished!
08:22Huh?
08:23But we're almost toast!
08:26What's going on?
08:27And the answer is?
08:29Wow, a really big number!
08:40Ahh!
08:41No!
08:43Crunching numbers!
08:49Ahh!
09:01Hold on, everybody!
09:02Everybody?
09:05Uh-oh!
09:06Ahh!
09:16Oh, no!
09:17What have I done?
09:22Cool move, Dorothy Anne!
09:24Totally unexpected, and that's the best thing about it!
09:27We're gonna have some story to tell, aren't we?
09:29Is the bus okay?
09:30Eh, nothing a magic fuse can't fix!
09:34In that case, wow!
09:36How far down are we?
09:37How many seconds did we fall?
09:38How long will it take to get back up?
09:39Not to mention, how do we find the rest of the class?
09:43Ugh!
09:44Well, that was different.
09:47No kidding!
09:48Now what do we do?
09:49Something about the blinking light says,
09:52check out the blinking light!
09:54Okay, let's do this!
09:57Hello, kids!
09:58Welcome to 130,000 years ago!
10:01No way!
10:02When we dropped through the ice, we went back in time, too?
10:05Not quite.
10:06But check this out!
10:08That ice is a lot more interesting than you think.
10:11You see those air pockets?
10:12Those little bubbles?
10:13Right as Moraine!
10:15They were trapped there 130,000 years ago,
10:18and they still hold air from way back then!
10:20And they tell quite a story, if you know how to find it.
10:23How would you like to visit one?
10:25What?
10:26Visit an air bubble?
10:30Huh?
10:31Hey, what's going on here?
10:33Whoa!
10:34Whoa!
10:35Whoa!
10:36Whoa!
10:40Welcome to the Eemian Age, 130,000 years ago!
10:44Whoa!
10:46Weird-a-cool!
10:47Is this what it was like way back then?
10:57Nice!
10:59What?
11:00You're totally a caveman!
11:02Takes one to know one.
11:04Ha-ha-ha!
11:05Ha-ha-ha!
11:06Ah!
11:07Look out!
11:08Secret to Tiger!
11:09Ah!
11:14Whoa!
11:15That was too close!
11:16It sure was.
11:17Or as my great-great-great-great-great-great-great Uncle Grog used to say,
11:21Oink! Oink!
11:22Oh!
11:24He would always make jokes like that.
11:28Whoa!
11:31That was incredible!
11:32We were in this prehistoric world.
11:34You know why they call mammoths mammoths?
11:36Because they're mammoths!
11:37And then the saber-toothed tiger came out of nowhere!
11:40Rawr!
11:41Isn't it amazing that in a glacier,
11:43a little air bubble from such a long time ago can tell such a big story?
11:48I love it!
11:50You're telling me.
11:51Look at all these numbers.
11:53Carbon dioxide levels, air temperatures, soot levels.
11:56Right.
11:57Numbers.
11:58Gets her every time.
11:59Hey, speaking of time,
12:00we should have been with Geodee and Arnold 20,000 years ago by now.
12:03Come on!
12:05No way!
12:06That's phenomenal!
12:07Hey, Arnold!
12:08I was just grunting with that guy over there.
12:10Yeah?
12:11What did he grunt?
12:12He grunted that apparently the water was low enough
12:14that he could walk here from the other side of the world.
12:18Yeah.
12:19Did he bring lunch?
12:20Anything's better than this.
12:23It is a little on the burnt-to-a-crisp side.
12:27Ugh.
12:28I knew I should have stayed in my cave today.
12:33I didn't see that coming.
12:35Come on!
12:36That was a lot of fun.
12:38Did you see what we saw?
12:39Sabertooth tigers?
12:40Woolly mammoths?
12:41No, but we did see some prehistoric people.
12:44It's like they never even heard of salad.
12:47Oh, that's great.
12:48But what happened with the numbers?
12:50Let me check the data.
12:54Hmm.
12:55What do you know?
12:5680,000 years later, temperatures have dropped.
12:59But only a little.
13:00Wonder what happens next.
13:02Then let's find Tim at the next stop.
13:05At a layer that was formed only 200 years ago!
13:12That must be where ash in a glacier comes from.
13:15A volcanic kaboom!
13:17So cool!
13:19Ya think?
13:20Guys, this is so wild!
13:22And so is your outfit.
13:24The temperature and carbon dioxide levels have hardly changed,
13:27even though it's thousands of years later!
13:30Wild!
13:32This is not good.
13:33Run!
13:34Down, guys!
13:35There are a few variations.
13:37But still.
13:38The Earth 200 years ago really isn't much warmer than it's been over the last 129,800 years.
13:44In fact, some years it was even cooler.
13:46Let's get out!
13:48Man, I can't wait to see what the numbers are when we pick up Keisha.
13:51What about you guys?
13:53Run!
13:54Is something wrong?
14:04There aren't any mammoths or volcanoes in my air bubble.
14:07It's just the world from the 1970s.
14:09Old cars, factories, crazy clothes.
14:13Yeesh, I don't know which is worse.
14:15Red hot raining lava or that guy's pants.
14:18But you guys!
14:20These numbers are off the charts!
14:22In the last 70 years,
14:24the changes in temperature and carbon dioxide levels have been huge
14:28compared to over the entire 100,000 years before!
14:31Oh, really?
14:33Can we go back to the mammoths, please?
14:35Doesn't this tell you guys anything?
14:38That there's a bad smell?
14:41Ooh, I love the smell of progress in the morning.
14:44Come on, class, let's get Wanda.
14:46She's waiting for us in the present day.
14:48Gladly. On my way!
14:49Come on!
14:53There you are, on top of the glacier.
14:56Exactly as it is today.
14:58I know! And look!
15:00Polar bears!
15:02Aren't those cubs cute?
15:04Come on, let's go take a closer look.
15:06Yay!
15:08Cute, but I need my data first.
15:11I need to know if modern day measurements support the warming trend.
15:14Trend? What trend?
15:16This trend.
15:18Crazy, right?
15:19Er, yes.
15:21I know!
15:22Come on, let's get some more numbers.
15:24D.A., are you sure that's safe?
15:27This glacier looks like it's melting.
15:29Unbelievable!
15:31Incredible!
15:32D.A., maybe we better turn around.
15:39Uh-oh!
15:40Wanda!
15:41Wanda!
15:42Ah!
15:48Hang on!
15:49Hang on!
15:50Help!
15:51Hang on, Wanda!
15:52I need some rope.
15:56Grab this!
15:58Good to go!
16:06Ms. Frizzle!
16:10Ms. Frizzle!
16:13One wonder winch coming up.
16:16One, two, three, pull!
16:29Woo-hoo!
16:32Phew! Thanks, guys.
16:34You know, as my great-aunt Gertie used to say,
16:37You mess with ice, and you pay the price!
16:40She was weird, but she was smart.
16:45Hey.
16:46Has anyone seen my frizz tab, purple case?
16:48Has everything in the whole entire world that I care about on it?
16:52You mean that busted pile of computer guts?
17:01No!
17:06It's okay, D.A.
17:07Really, you can borrow my frizz tab, okay?
17:10It's not the frizz tab, Keisha.
17:12It's everything on it.
17:14All those numbers!
17:15We need to get it back.
17:17We need to go back down into the glacier and start over.
17:20Sweet! It's Man of Time, the sequel!
17:22Actually, it's story time, which means we are out of time.
17:26We gotta get back so D.A. can tell her story.
17:29But everything I need!
17:30130,000 years of numbers!
17:32It's all right here! It was in the ice!
17:35Exactly.
17:36So let's do what glacier scientists do and take some of the ice home with us.
17:44Okay.
17:48And the guy at the dealership said I'd never use this
17:51Icy Time Anti-Torque Triple Bit Wicked Cool Ice Core Drillerator.
17:55You mean that thing drills into the ice and takes out a slice?
18:00Not so much a slice, more of a cylinder.
18:05It's called an ice core sample. You'll see.
18:08That's genius! If we take a super long piece of ice with us...
18:11With all the air bubbles in it...
18:13I'll have everything I need to tell the whole story!
18:16To go!
18:17Man, I hope we get fries with that.
18:24This is your story?
18:25You bet, Dad! And it's the biggest story ever!
18:28Even bigger than your epic tale The Tortoise and the Erectilagous Caniculus?
18:32Remember all those velocity charts? Tortoise vis-a-vis Hare?
18:35Well, this story is completely different!
18:38It's going to amaze you! Right, Miss Frizzle?
18:41Yep.
18:43You know, I still can't believe I saw an actual mammoth!
18:47I just remember tiger teeth.
18:49Long, pointy teeth.
18:50I just remember lunch. Charred, smoldering lunch.
18:53And I remember that temperatures rose more quickly in the last 200 years
18:57than they did in the 100,000 before.
18:59Um, small reminder. You do have a story to go with your numbers. Right, D.A.?
19:04You might say that.
19:06Go, D.A., go!
19:08You can do this!
19:09I did my part, D.A.
19:10I hid your calculator.
19:14Hi, everybody!
19:15Ever wonder what the Earth was like 130,000 years ago?
19:20So far, so good.
19:21Was the level of CO2 227.653 parts per million?
19:25Or was it 250.889?
19:28Numbers! Hurting! Brain!
19:30Let's just say there's a story behind those numbers.
19:33With tigers.
19:35I'm healed!
19:36Only I'm not telling the story by myself.
19:39This piece of ice, a core sample from a super old glacier,
19:43will help because it's got something to say.
19:49Bus, do yourself.
19:56Once upon a time, the Earth was very different.
20:01Wooly mammoths roamed the land.
20:04That is, when they weren't being chased by saber-toothed tigers.
20:10Little bits of stuff, soot, pollen, dirt, ash, trapped in the glacier's air bubbles
20:15tell us that the climate was perfect for those animals.
20:18Back then, it was warmer, with higher sea levels,
20:21which was awesome for giant octopuses.
20:25Then it got colder.
20:27More ice formed at the poles of the Earth.
20:29Sea levels went back down.
20:31It stayed like that for tens of thousands of years.
20:34While slowly, people got smarter, built things.
20:38Then around 200 years ago, people got really busy.
20:41We started inventing cool stuff that makes life better.
20:49But some of it makes smoking gases like carbon dioxide that go up into the air.
20:54Gases trap heat from the sun and keep it close to Earth.
20:58So, as time went on, temperatures went up.
21:01The oceans got warmer.
21:03Ice sheets started melting, adding water to the ocean.
21:07More in the last 200 years than it did in the 100,000 years before.
21:11Which means that if things keep going this way, the Earth is going to get warmer.
21:17Some places will get more rain and floods.
21:19Other places will get hot and dry, with less foods and fewer kinds of animals.
21:25It's a lot of change in a super short time.
21:27And that could make it harder for people to adapt.
21:29But that's not the end of the story.
21:32If we don't like the way this is going, maybe we can do something about it.
21:37What can kids do?
21:39We can do less of the stuff that sends these gases into the air.
21:42Like instead of asking for a car ride, we can walk or take our bikes.
21:46Or we can turn off the light when we leave a room.
21:49Or shut off our computers when we're done.
21:51Plant a tree.
21:53We can really think about how what we do affects the Earth every day.
21:57But most of all, we can share the story that glaciers told us, so everybody hears it.
22:02And then, we can all work together to give the story a happy ending.
22:06For the glaciers, and for us.
22:24Hi, I'm looking for the Magic School Bus.
22:26Is this the Magic School Bus?
22:28Magic School Bus?
22:29Is this the Magic School Bus?
22:30Hi, I'm looking for the Magic School Bus.
22:32Magic School Bus?
22:34Magic School Bus?
22:36Magic School Bus?
22:37Is this the Autobus Magico?
22:39Bonjour, je cherche l'Autobus Magique.
22:41I'd like to speak to the Magic School Bus, please.
22:48Professor Frizzo, we have a problem.
22:51Professor Frizzo, PhD, voted to science.
22:55Hi, I was wondering about when the kids fell down through the glacier crevasse.
22:58Don't try this at home, right?
23:00Nailed it!
23:01Skiers and climbers can be severely or even fatally injured from falling down a crevasse.
23:06Scientists who work on glaciers have special training to make sure they stay okay.
23:10So drilling for ice cores is the best way to go?
23:12Yep, plus drilling can get you way deeper than the usual depth of a crevasse.
23:16You'd need to go down about 3,000 meters to get to ice as old as the ice Ralphie and Carlos were chilling with.
23:22I'm glad they did.
23:23That was fun!
23:24Thanks!
23:28Whoops!
23:29And bye to our ball, too.
23:31I'm thinking that playing on a glacier wasn't the best idea.
23:34Funny, thinking and volleyball are actually pretty connected.
23:37Stick around to see how.
24:16NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
24:46NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
25:16NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology