Edheads: Trauma is an excellent tool for kids who are studying biology or want to enter the medical field. Teachers could use it as part of a human anatomy or general biology course. A great place to start is the teacher's guide on the developer's website. Review the glossary terms with kids before they use the app. The activity would work well as a teacher-led lesson or as a small-group activity. If kids work in small groups, pause after each section (such as Introduction, Emergency Room 1, and so on) and discuss the results of the patient assessments. Be sure students use the worksheets provided so they can more easily follow the learning process and review their work as needed.
Continue readingEdheads: Trauma is an animated story that teaches kids how to stabilize and diagnose patients who've been admitted to the emergency room. One patient, for example, has passed out behind the wheel of a car, and several tests are required to determine why. The main characters, an ER doctor and a pharmacist, introduce kids to the emergency room and incoming patients. Kids then work through various stages of testing and analyze the data to determine each patient's condition. For example, kids assess a patient's neurological condition using a Glasgow Coma Scale. The ER doctor does an awful lot of talking as she explains various tests. A voice-to-text feature at the bottom of the screen can help kids follow along, but some tappable glossary terms and explanations embedded directly into the app could help ease kids into the terminology. Note that some content might not be appropriate for younger kids: A patient dies as a result of a drug overdose and is suspected of having an addiction.
Students can learn quite a bit of medical terminology as well as how to assess a patient by examining physical condition and conducting diagnostic tests. The scenario is realistic, engaging, and highly interactive. The app promotes critical thinking skills as kids analyze data and reach conclusions about each patient's condition. Kids assess and rate a patient's physical responses, examine X-rays for potential problems, and analyze blood and urine. As they work through each part of the exam, kids tap to answer questions and locate issues on X-rays, while receiving hints and detailed instructions from the ER doctor. More feedback could help when kids get off-track, especially with the X-rays, which can be difficult to analyze. Since kids get a tremendous amount of information, some background knowledge about medical terminology and tests would be very beneficial.