The Magic School Bus Gets Planted
Original airdate: November 16th, 1996
Subject: Photosynthesis
Focus Student(s): Phoebe, Keesha, Wanda
The class is putting on "Jack and the Beanstalk," only they don't have a beanstalk because Phoebe was unable to grow one. Ms. Frizzle decides to help by turning Phoebe into a bean plant, and the class needs to figure out how to make her bigger. Keesha decides that they need to figure out how plants are fed, so that they have a beanstalk in time for the performance.
Producers Segment
The male producer answers the questions about the episode while working in a garden. Liz eats too many vegetables and begins feeling naseaus.
Tropes
- All Part of the Show: The audience is more concerned about the beanstalk not growing than about the Phoebe beanstalk talking about her stage fright and Jack's mother breaking character to give the latter a pep talk.
- Cross-Cast Role: Wanda, Arnold, and Ralphie are all cast in such roles for the play, with Wanda as Jack and Arnold and Ralphie as the cow.
- Epic Fail: Phoebe trying to grow, and then build a beanstalk for the play. Plastic leaves are falling off the fake one, and then Liz accidentally knocks it down.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- Wanda gets one when, while swimming with chloroplasts she gets coated in sugar. This makes the class realize that plants make their own food.
- Keesha when Ms. Frizzle while narrating the show drops the hint that Phoebe needs to open her leaves so that they can absorb sunlight.
- Exact Words: Phoebe tells Ms. Frizzle that she ought to do any growing for the bean plant, meaning that she ought to actually sprout it. Ms. Frizzle then uses the bus to turn Phoebe into a "Phoe-bean," as Carlos puts it.
- Green Around the Gills: Liz gets this after eating too much from the garden during the Producer segment.
- No Sympathy: Wanda is more concerned about how Phoebe not having a beanstalk will affect her performance as Jack than the fact that Phoebe is a bean plant and needs more than either encouragement or Brutal Honesty to grow.
- Performance Anxiety: Phoebe suffers from this, at the thought of being onstage. She gets over it in the end when Keesha gives her a pep talk.
- Plant Person: Phoebe is temporarily turned into a bean plant by Ms. Frizzle.
- Rule of Three:
- Food in a plant isn't found in the roots (although minerals can be absorbed with water), or in the stem. The class learns that plants make their food in the leaves, in the third stop that they make.
- To make food, plants require water, air, and sunlight.
