Aha! Island

**Aha! Island** was a preschool STEM initiative funded by the National Science Foundation to get young children to master the skill of computational thinking (CT) and, ultimately, the pilot of Work It Out Wombats! Resources include animated and live-action videos, a web site, hands-on activities, and related children’s books for families.

## Outline

**Aha! Island** followed the misadventures of four monkeys named **Daisy**, **Maisy**, **Fred**, and **Bo**.

## Episodes

### **The Elephant in the Room**

Maisy, Daisy, Fred, and Bo attempt to **create, test and improve** a house that will be large enough for Elle the Elephant. Mr. Many Hats encourages the monkeys to hurry before it rains!

### **Shivery Delivery**

Maisy, Daisy, Fred, and Bo **create** a way to make an ice cream tray that can carry seven ice cream cones at the same time. They **test** several types of material to see if the tray will strong enough to hold the ice cream cones. The monkeys try various means to **improve** their ice cream tray.

### **Making a Racket Playing Whack-It**

Maisy, Daisy, Fred and Bo are playing a sport called Whack-It Ball against the crab kids. They must figure out how to **create, test** and **improve** their game by learning to play as a team.

### **At the Drop of a Hat**

The monkeys and their friends **step it out** to find a missing hat. They figure out what they did first, second, third and fourth at the drop of a hat.

### **Unstuckeroo!**

Maisy, Daisy, Fred and Bo get their arms stuck in a vase and need to get unstuck in time for the dance competition. They **step it out** in order to make it to the dance competition in the nick of time.

### **To Win the Prize, Be Wise**

Maisy, Daisy, Fred and Bo must figure out what order they should use in order to win Elle the Elephant at the county fair. The monkeys **step it out** to make a win and take Elle the Elephant home.

### **Going Bananas with Lemonade!**

The monkeys make lemonade. Mrs. Flamingo did not look happy when she tried it. They **make it work** by checking their steps to figure out what the problem was.

### **Stay Clean, Monkeys**

The monkeys keep getting dirty. They need to check their steps and **make it work** so they can stay clean for a party.

### **Don’t Dilly-Dally When You Turtle-Tally**

Mr. Many Hats leaves the monkeys to **make it work** on finding the number of turtles in all. Tally marks are used to find the total altogether.

## Songs

* Don't Go Mr. Flamingo
* Stomp Clap Spin
* Check Your Steps
* Good Time
* Join Together
* Create Test Improve
* Make it Better
* Step it Out
* What's Going On

## Trivia

* The pilot is animated in 2018 and introduced in 2019, but retooled as a TV show (which premiered four years later).
* The pilot is not to be produced nor animated by the Canadian studio.

## Contrast to Work It Out Wombats!

* Unlike Work It Out Wombats, which demonstrated seven **computational thinking** skills throughout various other episodes, Aha! Island only demonstrated three (Create, Test, Improve, Step It Out, and Make It Work).
* When it comes to character changes, three monkeys: **Maisy** would later become Zadie, Fred would become Malik, and Bo would become Zeke but became with different species. The show would completely do away with **Daisy**. Additionally, **Mr. Many Hats** would change to Mr. E, and **Carly, Caleb, and Clyde** would become Carly, Cece, and Clyde (with Caleb now becoming a female crab named Cece).