FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 28, 1998
#98-07

NIEHS CONTACT:
John Peterson
(919) 541-7860

28 Apr 1998: Fun with Environmental Science on the Web

To capture the attention of children and teenagers, a web site must offer more than facts and statistics, even if it includes interesting ones on health and your environment.

So, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the part of the National Institutes of Health that does research on the health effects of environmental agents, has developed a Kids' Page that features games, puzzles, brainteasers and other challenges.

"The site's main purpose is to give young people an understanding of the impact of our environment on people's health," explains systems coordinator Marcia Soward, who developed the site for the Office of Communications. "It also may help kids develop an interest in health- and science-related careers."

Some of the offerings include games, like the Toxic River Rafting Race, that familiarize students with environmental and other science-related issues, brainteasers and riddles to spark creativity, on-line coloring with "magic crayons," and an environmental art gallery that features photos and drawings that reflect the delicate relationship between man and nature.

For maturer audiences, the site includes news on environmental topics, a page called "Getting Your Own Lab Coat" which profiles various careers in the health sciences, and a challenging game based on a recent NIEHS publication in which students must identify an environment-related illness for each letter of the alphabet.

To access the site, connect to the NIEHS home page at: http://www.niehs.nih.gov (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/), and click on the box titled "Kids' Page." The site is also listed under the HHS Pages for Kids, a special section for young people that has been added to the Department of Health and Human Services home page-http://www.hhs.gov/kids (http://www.hhs.gov/kids/) .