The goal of this project is to complete development and evaluation - through focus group discussions, observed pulse-taking skills, and randomized trial survey data - of an upper elementary level interactive anatomy and physiology education product. This product will enable students to learn about the fundamental processes and care of the human body (the circulatory skeletal, muscle, immune, respiratory, and digestive systems; elementary physiology; growth and development; the brain, nerves, and senses; body maintenance; reproduction). Educational emphasis will be on knowledge gain, skill development, and increased self-protective behaviors to help achieve school health educational standards and maintain healthy lives. The target audience is 8 to 11 year-old children, the usual age range of children in the 3rd through 5th grades, and a cognitively similar group. It is an age where children are intensely interested in their own bodies and their own health. Health Media Lab has extensive experience in developing, evaluating, and marketing interactive, multimedia software that encourages use, is proven effective, and is developmentally appropriate for this age group. Like our other interactive school health education products - Hungry Red Planet TM and D.M. Dinwiddie, Physician-in-Training TM - this product will be designed to integrate with most state health education standards for schools. In addition, this product will be ready for teachers to use, requiring no lesson preparation. Also like our other products, this one will consist of an academic and a home use version. The Academic Version will be sold to schools through a variety of mechanisms including resellers and directly on our Website. It will contain both a student and an instructor CD-ROM or DVD, plus an Instructor's Guide with complete lesson plans, worksheets and handouts, software installation and system requirement information, and an overview of educational concepts, in both hard copy and digital PDF files. The Home Version will be sold through catalogues and directly on our Website, and will consist of software for CD-ROM, DVD, X-Box, and/or PS2, and a printed Parents' Guide for parents who want to accompany their children in learning about anatomy and physiology.
