http://medmyst.rice.edu

Web Adventures that explore causes, prevention, and treatment
of infectious diseases
Funded by a Science Education Partnership Award from the
National Center for Research Resources, R25RR15295 and a grant from the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases R25 AI062762
http://medmyst.rice.edu
The mission begins in the city of Neuropolis’ Center
for Disease Control. Prior to assignment to the field
as new members of The Reconstructors, players
must successfully complete several challenges to
demonstrate their knowledge of basic infectious
disease concepts:
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Germ Theory
Infectious agents
Modes of transmission
Immune response
Treatment/prevention methods
This mission takes players to the outpost of
Prokaryon. To stop an epidemic that
threatens a refugee camp players must:
• Identify the infectious agent
• Discover the way the illness is
spreading through use of interviews,
maps, and a case-control study
• Treat the disease
• Prevent the further spread of the illness
Working against time, players must solve
the mystery of a disease never before seen
in Neuropolis. Is it the result of
bioterrorism? How can it be stopped? To
succeed, players must:
• Piece together clues from the life of the
first victim and his family
• Use a virtual electron microscope to
identify the infectious agent
• Decide the best immunization strategy
Free via Internet Browser with Flash plug-in
Designed with middle schools student/teacher input
Brief missions (about 30 minutes)
Virtual scientific experiments
Intriguing characters who help solve the mystery
Microbiology Education, May 2004, p.13-20
Student
Feedback
Published field test results involving over 700 students
from nine different schools assessed knowledge gains
attributable to playing MedMyst. Gain scores from
pretest to posttest indicated that middle school students
retained important information by interacting with the
online material for as little as 30 minutes per adventure.
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Identify the
cause of an
infectious
disease using
Koch’s
Postulates
Music and animation that enliven the storyline
Links to web sites with additional information
Correlated to National Science Content Standards
MedMyst Magazine and Hands-on Activities
accompany each mission
• The thing I liked most was the games challenged your mind to
figure out the answers.
• What I liked most about MedMyst was that you could interact
with objects. Take mission two, for example, when they ask you
to view the slides under the microscope, you actually click and
drag the slides over.
• The program makes you feel a part of it. I felt like I was a
professional agent that was chosen to be on a mission to prevent
diseases.
• You could learn what you learn in school, but in a really fun way.
It’s like the computer is your teacher. It teaches you about stuff
in a more fun way than in class.
• I think that since it's interactive, it's awesome. Mostly things
like this are just things that you watch, take notes on, etc., but
MedMyst helps you learn as well as is fun.
• I really liked how they turned it into a mystery that really got
me into it!
• It was interactive and gave students choices and decision points.
Examine the
pathogen that
causes
cholera
Teacher
Feedback
Key
Features
Field Test
Results
Examples of Virtual Labs
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• I liked the fact that it has quizzes after each activity.
• I like using it with my students because they are engaged.
When they want the website to work on it at home, I know that
it is effective!
• What an outstanding learning tool. My sixth grade students love it.
Congratulations for constructing such an amazing activity.
Any more missions planned?
http://medmyst.rice.edu