Riley is upset when the boys at school won’t let her participate in a science experiment and attempts to become more involved.  Meanwhile, Augie learns the meaning of “being in the game.”

There are good episodes of GMW, there are exceptional episodes of GMW … and then there is this one.

Line of the episode: “I’m reading this great book on anti-gravity.  I can’t put it down.”

In the episode, which focuses on science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and girls, our chemistry lab teams are required to (a) drop a marble into a beaker of liquid (for some reason at 3:15 PM and then (b) spend the next few classes trying to figure out its chemical composition.

Surprise, surprise.  The girls get to drop the marble and, allegedly, the boys get to figure out whats in the sludge.  (Spoiler alert: Mr. Chemistry teacher has been doing this experiment for 35 years.  The answer is that “all of us have unlimited potential.”  By not dropping the marble in the beaker, the solution stays clear, so that you can see the other person clearly.  Get it?)

Understanding one’s identity has been done so much better on GMW (remember Donnie Barnes, regular guy).  As a science educator, I am painfully aware of the need to sustain girls’ interest in STEM disciplines, especially in middle school.  If you lose them in 8th grade, you’ve, in some ways, lost them forever.  I’ll give GMW credit for at least pointing this out.

But getting to this point was painful, mainly because the storyline and outcome was so blatantly obvious.  There’s some mumbo-jumbo about sacrificing Yogi, and enough “Up With People” lines to fill an after-school special.  By the time the episode concludes, I was screaming at the TV, “We get it!”

The B story was equally as dismal.  Augie gets a participant trophy in soccer and we get another cornucopia of politically-correct statements from the soccer field about not playing to win.  I got the point here to but I often feel that Topanga is wasted on these side plots.

Sorry, GMW, but this one wasn’t a winner.