Crawl on Your Belly Like GI Joe

Abstract

Many pediatric burns can be prevented. However, education must be presented in an informative and interesting manner to be effective. Is it possible to teach burn safety to elementary school children in four sessions? Sixty-six fourth-grade children were involved in age-appropriate activities, experiments, and discussion that were spaced evenly throughout the school year. Content was based on material furnished by the local fire department with added videos and exercises. By having children crawl blindfolded on their bellies through halls like GI Joe TV characters and by having them watch dry vapors swirl around their faces, boring burn lectures can be turned into challenging and entertaining games. In a game-type testing session, 40 of 49 questions were answered correctly the first time. A community teaching project for interested burn team members is easily planned and implemented. The enthusiastic response of the children and the satisfaction of preventing a possible burn injury promotes continued involvement.