Season 3

2019-04-29

Maddie finds out how really tall buildings are made out of steel and concrete. She visits a skyscraper construction site to explain how the concrete columns that are buried deep into the ground help to make it strong and stable. Then Maddie uses a special 360 camera to see all around her from the top floor. Next Maddie is finding out how birds fly. She visits a bird sanctuary and uses a special slow-motion camera to help us understand how Ollie the barn owl uses his streamlined body and powerful wings to take off, fly, and land.

2019-04-30

Maddie is finding out about the life cycle of plants! She visits a gigantic tomato growing farm and uses her special time-lapse camera to discover how a plant germinates from a seed and grows into a shoot. Next, she travels in a lift to the top of the high greenhouse to see the flowers and tomato fruits growing. We learn how the plant needs water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to make its own energy to grow. Next, Maddie heads to a compost farm to see how compost is made from things we might throw away. She uses a special microscopic camera to see wriggly worms, insects and bacteria that help break down the waste to make useful compost we can grow plants in.

2019-05-01

In today's episode Maddie finds out about cars. She heads to a car engine factory and with her special cameras finds out how blocks of aluminium metal are melted and made into a car engine. Along the way she meets some robots that help deliver the car parts around the factory! Next, Maddie finds out how cars are loaded onto a car transporter. She climbs onboard for the ride with her special cameras as we learn how 11 cars are lifted in the right position using hydraulic pumps.

2019-05-02

Maddie explains how the Sun doesn’t move when we go from day to night, but how it’s the Earth turning on its axis that makes the sun appear in the morning and go away again at night. She uses a special time-lapse camera at sunset to show the Earth turning away from the Sun when it is ‘going down’ at night time. Next, Maddie heads to a solar panel farm. She uses her special thermal camera to help us see how the solar panel cells collect the Sun’s energy and turn it into electricity that we can use.

2019-05-03

Maddie visits a singing group and the children help us find out how we use our mouths, vocal chords and lungs to make different sounds when we sing and speak. Maddie uses a special machine to measure the different high and low sounds that we make. Next, she visits a trombone factory to see how copper and zinc metals are made into brass trombones. We see how the parts are bent and moulded into different shapes to make the new parts of the trombone and Maddie uses a special gadget to measure the temperature and find out how the metals are heated and stuck together.

2019-05-06

In today’s episode Maddie is going high and low! She takes her special 360 camera to the top of the longest suspension bridge in the UK to find out how it works. Maddie discovers a suspension bridge has really strong cables that use forces to carry all the people and traffic across the river, and she heads underground to see how the cables are buried. Next, Maddie heads to a playground flooring factory to see how different materials are mixed together, creating a chemical reaction, and melted into a gloopy mixture to make a dolphin shape at a playground.

2019-05-07

Maddie is finding out about repeating patterns. She visits a butterfly sanctuary to learn how the life cycle of a butterfly works. Maddie uses her special microscope camera to show us the marvellous moment when a tiny caterpillar hatches out of its egg, and we see three Owl butterflies emerge from their pupa and spread their wings for the first time. Then Maddie heads to a wallpaper factory to learn how a repeat pattern is designed and the different colours are printed. She uses her special cameras to see how a printing machine uses rollers to print each separate colour and make the whole pattern repeat.

2019-05-08

Maddie is at a building site and finds out how tracks work to help a digger move up and down mounds of earth. Maddie wears some special shoe attachments to show us how the digger’s tracks work to stop it sinking into the soil. Then she attaches a special camera to the digger – to see it in action as it lifts the soil high into the dumper truck! Next, she visits a wellie factory to see how wellies are made. Maddie uses her special cameras to see how the PVC material is injected into the wellie moulds – a bit like making a jelly! We find out how a different colour is injected to make the sole before they are squashed together to make a complete colourful wellie.

2019-05-09

In today’s episode Maddie is listening for sounds. First, she discovers how wearing a hearing aid can help us hear more clearly. She meets 7 year old Zara who uses a hearing aid, before visiting the audiology department in a children’s hospital to see where hearing aids are made. Maddie finds out what happens when we have our hearing tested. She listens to different sounds through headphones so the Audiologist can see how well her ears hear sounds. Maddie then uses her special microscopic camera to see the tiny parts of the hearing aid before showing us what it’s like to have one fitted. Next, Maddie heads to a whistle factory to see how they are made. She uses her special camera to see big, strong stamping machines cut shapes out of brass and finds out how the cork ball gets put inside the whistle when it’s too big for the hole!

2019-05-10

In today’s episode it’s playtime! Maddie is finding out about wind-up toys and how they move along. We see inside a wind-up truck and Maddie uses her special cameras to show us how the spring inside gets tighter and tighter and stores energy so that when it is released the cogs inside move the wheels. Next, Maddie visits a factory where cricket bats are made from willow trees, because it’s bouncy and strong. First the tree trunk is cut using a chainsaw and we learn how the wood is shaped using lots of different cutting and sanding machines. We see inside a robot that is shaped like a pineapple! Maddie uses her special slow-motion camera to see all the wood shavings flying off as the bat takes shape.

2019-05-13

Maddie visits a farm to show us how a potato harvester works - picking out and sorting the potatoes growing in the ground. She uses her special cameras to see how the machine pulls off the roots and shakes off the soil. Then we see how the potatoes are carried up a ‘potato escalator’ to be packed into huge crates. Next, she visits a cereal factory to see how wheat biscuits are made. We find out how the wheat grains are cooked and dried in an oven – Maddie uses her special slow-motion camera so that we can see how the grains are heated – they look like they are dancing! Then Maddie helps to press them into wheat biscuit shapes ready to be packed and sent to the shops.

2019-05-14

Maddie heads to a bowling alley to find out how it works. She takes her special cameras and looks behind the lane to see where the pins end up and how they get put back in the right place. We also see underneath the bowling alley to find out how the ball rolls back ready for the player to take another turn. Next Maddie heads to a ribbon factory where they make lots of different types of ribbon from recycled plastic. She uses her special microscope camera to see how the tiny weft and warp yards are woven together to make a tartan ribbon.

2019-05-15

Maddie visits beehives on the roof of a building in the city. She finds out how honey bees make honey in the hive. Maddie puts on a special beekeeping suit before the beekeeper opens the hive to see the busy bees working away. She uses her special slo-motion camera to see the bees fanning the hive with their wings to make the liquid honey evaporate and turn thick and sticky. We also see them carrying the pollen from the flowers in tiny ‘pollen baskets’ on their legs. Next, Maddie visits a pottery to find out how mugs are made from clay. We see the big lumps of clay being shaped into a mug shape by a fast spinning machine. Then Maddie shows us how the brightly coloured stripy glaze is painted on by hand.

2019-05-16

Maddie learns what happens to food in our bodies when we eat it and why it’s important to eat a variety of different foods from different food groups. We find out which foods give us energy to move around, which help our bodies grow and repair, and which foods we get vitamins and minerals from. Then Maddie visits a meringue factory where she discovers how the proteins in egg whites work to make the meringue. She uses her special slow-motion camera to see how the giant whisks mix the egg whites with sugar, so that the mixture turns glossy and thick. And we see how the meringue is cooked to make it crunchy on the outside and gooey in the middle.

2019-05-17

In today’s episode, Maddie is finding out about the weather. She discovers why we have clouds and rain, and how the water cycle works. We learn there are lots of different types of clouds, but the clouds that make rain are called nimbus clouds. Maddie visits the national weather centre where they make the weather reports. She finds out how satellites high up in space can see the clouds moving and tell us when it might rain. Next, Maddie visits a radiator factory to find out how radiators are made to keep our houses warm. We see how big flat sheets of metal are pressed to make grooves, like teeth. The metal pieces are heated up and sealed together to make sure the water doesn’t leak out. Maddie takes her special camera on a journey along the radiator ‘washing line’, and we see how the radiators are sprayed with special paint to make them shiny.

2019-09-09

Today Maddie is learning about metal, and how it can be recycled and used again. Maddie visits a recycling centre where they recycle metal from old cars. She uses her special cameras to help us see how the gigantic crab cranes pick up, move and crush the cars into small pieces. The cranes are so big that they make the real cars look like toys! We also find out how a machine uses clever magnets to pick out the metal from other materials in the car like glass, rubber and cloth. Next, she visits a road sign factory to learn how they are made. She finds out about the different shapes of road signs and what they mean. Then Maddie uses her special time-lapse camera to see the designs as they are printed out on sheets of metal. Maddie finds out that they are covered in a reflective material that helps cars see the signs when it's dark.

2019-09-10

Maddie is at the coast! She visits a red and white striped lighthouse and meets the lighthouse keeper right at the top. She goes inside to where the bulb is kept and finds out how all the reflective glass that surrounds it helps make the light stronger. Then she uses a special drone camera that flies out to sea! The drone camera shows us how strong the light bulb is because it needs to warn ships miles out to sea that there's shallow water or rocks nearby. Next, Maddie visits a factory where bath bombs are made to find out about the ingredients that make bath bombs fizz! She discovers why it’s called a chemical reaction. Maddie uses her special underwater camera to show us the fizzy bubbles that are made when the bath bomb is dropped into water.

2019-09-11

Today, Maddie is having fun by the beach! She finds out how waves are formed far out to sea when the wind blows and how some of them are made by the tides. She visits a surfing centre and takes to the waves on a surfboard. Maddie attaches her special cameras to the surfboard to learn how the energy underneath the wave can carry us along and how when it reaches the shore the wave slows down and breaks. Next, Maddie visits a dairy farm and finds out how milk from cows is made into ice cream. She uses a special thermometer to show how cold the ice cream mixture is when it comes out of the batch freezer and turns from a liquid to a solid.

2019-09-12

In this episode, Maddie find out about books! First, she visits a library to learn how all the different types of books are stored in different sections. Then she uses her special cameras to show how the librarian helps us find a book in the library. We see how the books are sorted so that they all go back in the right place. Next, Maddie goes to a factory where books are made. She finds out how books start out as a big sheet of blank paper. Maddie shows us how this paper is printed with ink using a press and she finds out how the book pages are stitched together using a very fast machine with a needle and thread. She uses her special slow-motion camera to show us how each page of a book is made by being sucked up and folded in a special way.

2019-09-13

In today’s episode, Maddie explores how our body works. She visits a children’s hospital to find out what happens when we have an X-ray. She meets James, who has broken his arm, as well as a radiographer. We see what happens when we have an X-ray and learn how the X-ray machine takes a picture of the bones inside our body before saving the picture on a special machine. Next, Maddie heads to a factory where they make socks in lots of different colours out of yarn. Maddie uses her slow-motion camera to give us a special view when the sock-turning machine sucks in the socks and flips them out the right way around. They look like wiggly snakes!

2019-09-16

Maddie has a day out, starting by travelling on a tram. She finds out how it moves using electricity from wire cables above. Maddie jumps on board, and using her special cameras, she shows us how the tram stays in contact with the wire by making an electric circuit to give it the energy it needs. Next, Maddie finds out how maps are made. She meets a surveyor at a new housing estate, who uses a special satellite to mark new roads and houses on a map. Then she visits a mapmaking centre where they keep the Master Map and learns how cartographers make new maps of the UK.

2019-09-17

In this episode, Maddie is in the garden. She finds out how spiders make webs using silk, meets a spider expert and learns that different spiders make different types of webs. Using her slow-motion camera, Maddie shows how a garden spider makes an orb web. We learn that the structure is built in a special way so that it is strong and sticky but light. Next Maddie heads to a factory where watering cans are made. We learn how a watering can starts out as a lot of flat metal shapes. Maddie shows us how they are bent and moulded into all the different parts. She uses her special slow-motion camera to show how electromagnetic paint is sprayed and how it sticks to the metal watering can, making it smooth and shiny.

2019-09-18

In this episode, Maddie finds out what happens when we have our picture taken. She shows us how the parts of a camera work to make the image bright and clear. With the help of a pinhole camera, Maddie learns what happens when light goes into the lens in order to take a picture. Next, Maddie heads to a hairbrush factory. We see how a hairbrush is made from big planks of wood. She uses her special cameras to see the robots turn the wood into a rounded brush handle shape at very fast speeds. We also see machines that drill hundreds of holes into the wood to punch the bristles in.

2019-09-19

In this episode, Maddie is relaxing at home. She finds out what happens to our bodies when we go to sleep at night. Using a special sleep monitor, Maddie shows us that our bodies do not simply switch off but are in fact doing lots of important things while we sleep. She discovers how our breathing and heart rate slow down and how sometimes our eyes flicker. Next she visits a factory where sofas are made. Maddie follows the journey the wood takes: from cutting the planks, to building the frame, to making the upholstery to cover it. Maddie puts her special slow-motion camera inside a cushion to show us how a special machine blasts the feathers into the cushions at incredible speeds.

2019-09-20

In this episode, it is washing day! First, Maddie visits a washing machine repair centre to find out how washing machines work. She discovers how water gets into the drum through tiny holes and how a belt at the back spins the drum around very fast. Maddie puts her special camera inside the drum, and we see how the water and detergent are swished around to get a T-shirt clean inside. Next, Maddie goes to a jeans workshop and uses her special microscopic camera to discover how the weave in denim material makes it extremely strong. We also learn how lots of different shapes of materials are cut out and stitched together to make a pair of jeans.