Susan Ross of Discovery Kids Canada knows kids love facts that are "kind of neat, slightly on the edgy, gross side," and she is betting that they will also love to watch shows in which they will be able to learn things like how dinosaurs went to the bathroom.

Ms. Ross, vice-president and general manager of children's television for Corus Entertainment, which has been granted a licence for Discovery Kids Canada, says the channel wants kids to plunk down in front of the television set and learn, but it also wants them to enjoy it at the same time.

Launching on Sept. 3, the channel will provide programming to fit a niche not available to school-age kids in Canada, she says.

"What it will do is answer a natural curiosity that kids have - it's educational, informative programming" without being heavy-hitting, Ms. Ross said.

The channel, based on its U.S. counterpart, Discovery Kids, will offer 24-hour-a-day programming focusing on nature, science, technology and wildlife to children aged from six to 12. Each day will be divided up into six-hour blocks that will repeat four times throughout the day.

One of the channel's major programming themes is Survivor-style adventure without the nastiness and back-stabbing familiar to viewers. Outward Bound hopes to teach youths wilderness and independence skills in the wild. Eight kids head out on 14-day expeditions all over the world, and the series follows them as they work together to cross rapids or climb steep cliffs.

The setup is familiar to anyone who has watched Survivor or similar shows. It is filled with interviews, in which where the teens talk about their impressions of each other and about whether the pretty blond girl has what it takes to shoot rapids.

In one episode, the group helps one member of the team overcome her intense fear of water and flip over in a kayak. The phobia is palpable in several closeups of the girl's terror-stricken face, but the team's commitment to each other seems real.

This is exactly the sort of programming that appeals to school-aged children, Ms. Ross says.

"We did some focus-group testing - and we took some insights away from that. They [children] are interesting in seeing kids of that age come together."

Sail Away, produced by Discovery Networks in the United States, is a like Outward Boundin that it has kids working together in a group with a "positive, optimistic outlook," Ms. Ross said.

The half-hour drama shows 10 children thrown together on a boat, travelling through the Caribbean islands on a summer voyage that takes them into dangerous waters containing jellyfish and sharks, but of course there's the beautiful scenery to cheer them up.

Another series, Real Kids, Real Adventures, produced by Canada's Fireworks Entertainment, depicts children in real life-and-death situations who have risked their own lives to save others.

In one, a child is saved from drowning in a storm cellar. Other episodes feature shark attacks and mountain rescues - again, kids are the heroes of the stories.

Focus groups also showed that those aged six to 12 really "love to learn," Ms. Ross said.

In that vein, Discovery Kids will offer shows like Bonehead Detectives, produced by Discovery Networks, where hosts Sam and Allie talk to paleontologists about dinosaur fact and fiction. The show lets the kids do some role reversals, as they are the ones interviewing scientists, something that Ms. Ross expects to appeal to the viewers.

Animals will be another popular theme on the channel.

Most of the shows on the schedule deal with animals in some way, be it in their natural habitats, rescue or rehabilitation.

Children at this age really relate to the animal kingdom, Ms. Ross says. They are interested in facts such as the location of an owl's ears - which are actually on the side of the head right behind the eyes, not at the top of the head, she said.

Canadian show Buck Staghorn's Animal Bites takes a humorous twist on animals in the wild by showing bloopers from all over the world. Two series also come from well-respected Canadian nature experts - Suzuki's Nature Collection features Dr. David Suzuki talking about Canada's various ecosystems, while Suzuki's Nature Quest features his daughter, Severn, solving nature-related puzzles.

The channel will be available in two million Canadian households this fall, and Ms. Ross says she expects it to appeal not only to children but to their families.

Discovery Kids has the added advantage of having been promoted on YTV all summer through sneak previews of some programs on Sundays.

The programming schedule contains approximately 25 series from a variety of worldwide broadcasters from Australia to Britain. The CRTC has mandated that it show at least 15-per-cent Canadian content in its first year of operation and that it increase that amount each year.

That should not be a problem, Ms. Ross said, because Canadian production companies are working on a lot of quality, live-action programs for school-aged children.

Discovery Kids is a partnership between Corus Entertainment Inc. and Discovery Communications Inc.