Miles From Tomorrowland Lets Girls See The Opportunities In STEM fields!

As most of you know I attended a special Disney. Pixar & Disney Junior event from September 29-October 2 in San Francisco to take part in a fun few days of exploring the movies, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur and Miles From Tomorrowland. It was an amazing few days and it is my pleasure to share some of my experiences with you!

On the second day there we spent all day at Pixar exploring the Good Dinosaur as well as going to the Pixar archive and then going to a special event at GOOGLE for the Disney Junior series, Miles from Tomorrowland. I was really excited to have the opportunity to learn more about The Good Dinosaur, the Pixar Archive and Miles from Tomorrowland.

As part of the trip, we had one evening at GOOGLE and we had the opportunity to hear from an amazing panel which included Sascha Paladino, creator of Miles from Tomorrowland, but even more inspiring was the panel of women that they had. The Miles from Tomorrowland panel included sis Anchalee (#ILookLikeAnEngineer), Dr. Cagle (NASA Astronaut), Angela Navarro (Google Engineer), Di Ikemiyashiro (Disney Junior Exec) as well as the aforementioned Sascha Paladino.

As a part of this panel I was so impressed with the message that was being shared. Being a father of two girls, I want my girls to see that the world is wide-open to them and whether it is STEM fields or not I want them to feel welcomed and accepted no matter what.

We had the opportunity to hear from an inspirational panel including Sascha Paladino creator of the show, Isis Anchalee Wenger of the #IlooklikeanEngineer movement, Angela Navarro and Julie Ann Crommett of GOOGLE, Dr. Yvonne Cagle of NASA, and Diane Ikemiyashiro of Disney Junior. Each of these panelists shared their own stories after lee Wenger we saw a clip from the show that shows Miles’ sister, Loretta, having to push through a defeat to go through a journey that led to ultimate success. In the end though, the episode really showed us a powerful female character that was respected, and that used science and math to get things done, and done well.

The panelists came to us with a message that talked about the show as well as the importance of encouraging girls to look at science careers. We started to hear from Sascha Paladino as he talked to all of us about his journey to this show. He talked about always wanting to go to outer space as a kid, but that instead he decided to make a show about a family that went into space. Why space you might ask? Well. Sascha Paladino mentioned that when he found out that he was going to be a dad of twins he panicked a bit, but then re-evaluated and thought to himself, what would be the greatest adventure for a family? His answer, going to outer space. He also said something that really stayed with me and that was that “the adventures that you have with your family are the most fantastic ones you can have.” I completely agree Mr. Paladino.

All of the panelists agreed that Miles from Tomorrowland provides you a wonderful exchange between STEM and learning and kids are allowed to learn without really knowing that they are learning which is part of the fun! As Diane Ikemiyashiro from Disney Junior mentioned, “we put the vitamins in the cake. It’s there, but unseen.”

Sascha Paladino told everyone that it was always his goal to break stereotypes in every way that could. This answered one of the questions that I had in regards to the multi-racial family that you see on the show. I, for one, am so glad that Sascha Paladino continues to challenge and try new things and I know that many others are similarly impressed.

One of the other moments that I will not forget was the passion shown from Isis Anchalee Wenger when she spoke about her journey from being pre-med to being a software engineer, even though everyone told her she should not. On top of this, she was featured in a campaign showing her in her profession and this really opened her to becoming an advocate for all girls to look at all of the ways that science and math intersect with our world. She does this through using the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer and it lets others like herself share their stories so that other girls and women can see that they are not alone.

Julie Ann Crommett from GOOGLE shared that they did a study on this and in it the number one reason that girls chose to not go into a science or math career was because of a lack of adult encouragement. This did not mean that they were told not to go into the field, but they simply had no encouragement.

All-in-all I am so impressed with what we learned about Miles From Tomorrowland as well as the support that GOOGLE is giving to create a show that is working to bring forth more people that have a love of science and math in the future. If you and your family has never seen this before, I highly encourage it!

As a part the fact that STEM curriculum Disney Junior will be airing a brand new Miles from Tomorrow episode that focusses on coding and Lorett’a love for this.

The Loretta/Coding Episode airs this Friday. We would like your post to focus on this episode’s message of encouraging girls to pursue STEM fields including coding/computer science, a theme that is woven throughout the series.

The new Miles from Tomorrowland “The Discovery Expedition” airs this Friday, December 4 at 10:30 AM ET/PT. In “The Discovery Expedition” – Loretta uses her coding skills to discover a hidden planet. See below for a special clip about the Miles from Tomorrowland episode.