Each of the stories within the franchise focuses on the antics of a fictional elementary school teacher, Ms. Valerie Frizzle, and her class (with Carlos, Keesha, Phoebe, Arnold, Tim, Ralphie, Dorothy Ann, and Wanda) who board a "magic school bus", which takes them on field trips to unusual times and locations, such as the Cretaceous Period, outer space, and inside a human body.
Scholastic Entertainment president Deborah Forte says that adapting the books into an animated series was an opportunity to help kids "learn about science in a fun way".
[5] Around that time, Forte had been hearing concern from parents and teachers about how to improve science education for girls and minorities.
[5] As noted by Marcel LaFollette, "accomplished women were exceptions in a universe of male luminaries" when it came to science television.
[9] Scholastic Entertainment, the American Meteorological Society and Texan Children's Museum of Houston created a Scholastic's the Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm, a 2,600 sq ft (240 m2) traveling exhibit funded in part by the National Science Foundation, which premiered at the Children's Museum of Houston in 2003 (a copy of it opened in New Jersey the month after that).