ToxMystery
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ToxMystery is an educational activity developed for children from 7-11 years of age. The activity teaches young people about environmental hazards in their home and helps build an understanding of not only how to recognize the hazards but how to make their own home safer. Guiding them through is an animated cat named Toxie, who reads them the information and rewards them with fun.
ToxMystery was created by the United States National Library of Medicine.
The History of ToxMystery
ToxMystery was created by National Library of Medicine to address the need for greater understanding of household hazards by kids in the K-6 range. Recognizing the lack of environmental health resources aimed at kids, NLM sought to create a fun interface with a memorable character that could relate vital information in a way that was both enlightening and engaging.
ToxMystery went live October 2006 at toxmystery.nlm.nih.gov. In addition to its Online version there is a CD-ROM that can be made available to teachers and lesson plans and activities that have been developed for the classroom.
The Activity
To play ToxMystery, one must have a CD-ROM version of the application (given in limited release to teachers and educational professionals) or access to the internet and the latest version of Macromedia Flash Player.
To begin, the player clicks on the front door of Toxie’s house. If instructions are needed, the player can consult the “getting started” primer in the bottom button row. The object of the game is to find all of the environmental health hazards in the house. The player rolls the cursor across the rooms of the house and clicks one to explore it. The player then rolls the cursor around the individual rooms and looks for animation “hot-spots” that show where chemicals are hidden. When the player clicks on these hot spots, a question appears asking about the given location and what chemical hazard might be found there. If the player gets the question wrong, a brief explanation is given with the permission to try again. When the player gets the question right, he or she earns a “paw print” and moves forward. When all of the paw prints are earned, the room is completed and Toxie gives an animated movie. When the entire house has been finished, Toxie appears and offers the player a printable certificate of completion.
The Goals of ToxMystery
ToxMystery seeks to not only educate K-6 learners but to also give a hand to parents and teachers to ensure that they have proper resources on environmental health. Parents can click on the “Parent Resources” tab to find links to other NLM projects and pages. “Teacher’s Resources” contains the entire lesson plans with ToxMystery as the focus, as well as worksheets and activities that students can color and create.
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