MODIFICATION INSERTFOR PLANNING 10PROCESSDESN310 Core Design Studio IV | Lois(Liuwei) Wang

ABSTRACT SUMMARYThis project is about helping the youth with chronic conditions who are in transition from children’s medical care to adult medical care. We work with clients from the BC Children’s Hospital to generate an effective solution for this problem.

This process book documented the design process from research to final solution. Our group focuses on educating all youth in high school about the importance of personal health in turn to create a progressive environment for the youth with special health conditions.

Group members: Lois Wang, Winnie Chuang, Sophia Cai Course: DESN 310 Core Design Studio IV Instructor: Jonathan Aitken 2011 December

TABLE OF CONTENT

Research Summary

Secondary Research

Primary Research

Co-creation & Survey

Design Problem or Opportunity

Design Criteria

Visual Research

Initial concept

Refined concept

Project Context

Design Proposal

User Profile

Schedule

Brainstorming & Ideation

Final Proposed Solution

Project Reflection

Bibliography

Colour, typeface, element

Insert rationale

Teacher’s instructional guide

Materials

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PROJECT CONTEXTCurrently, children with chronic illnesses are well cared for in BC and specifically, they receive excellent care at the BC Children’s Hospital here in Vancouver. However, children are not necessarily well equipped to make the transition from children to adults. As children, they have had access to many supportive environments; adults were responsible for their care. As adults they are now expected to manage this care on their own, something they have not necessarily been adequately prepared for. Various initiatives are in place to ease this transition, however none are completely satisfactory. Much of it is print-based material with many charts and tables that need to be completed by the youth. Some of it seems designed for a younger, or older audience. None of it seems to “fit” today’s 18 year old. Other initiatives are online-based, but they too have had only partial “buy-in” from youth.

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DESIGN PROPOSALBased on research, our group found that the key to the transition problem is education — children with chronic conditions need to understand the importance of being aware of their own health conditions. In this case, we want to create a progressive environment for kids with chronic illness, which is that all the youth are educated to pay more attention to their personal health.

This project aims to change the presentation of health care to youth in high school. Through educating students about good health care habits, it will in turn will facilitate the youth with chronic illnesses to develop these habits along with their peers. The final solution is an educational kit that can be put in the current high school teaching curriculum.

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RESEARCH SUMMARYThe research we conducted included on-line sources, in-person visiting, co-creation and survey. Before the actual research, we generated several questions:

DESIGN PROPOSAL

- What are students with chronic illness mostly concerned about?

- Are there any projects that have been done to help teaching medical knowledge to the youth with chronic illnesses?

- How much do the majority of the teachers and students in high school know about chronic illness?

- Are there any teaching tools about personal health care in high school education?

- How much do young people prioritize their health above other aspects of their lives?

- Can we add our project into the current high school teaching curriculum? How?

- What are the common (chronic) illnesses that occur on children?

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We researched writing materials about problems that are related to kids with chronic conditions. We found that children or teenagers with special health conditions have to deal with their chronic illnesses like asthma, epilepsy or diabetes, when they are already dealing with the normal experience of growing up and stress (Psychological Complications of Chronic Illness). This situation easily makes these children emotionally unstable because they do not want to accept the fact that they are different from other children, and they are not aware of what will happen if they do not take responsibility for their own health conditions.

When it is time for them to deal with the transition from children to adults, young adults have “to learn, practice and become confident in the skills they need to manage their own health” (Transition to Adult Care). In fact, there are many people or organizations who are working on helping youth with chronic conditions through their transitions. There are adults like Laurie Edwards who grew up with lung and immunity problems. She wrote books to give tips to children with chronic conditions to live better, and be optimistic and patient with their treatments (Waite). There are on-line social networks like “My Diabetic Child”, a blog created by a mother. The blog offers a platform

SECONDARY RESEARCHDESIGN PROPOSAL

Sean is a 12 years old kid who is suffering from serious diabetes. In his talk about diabetes, he mentions that he often think “why should I have to do it [injection and testing blood sugar]….and why did it happen to me anyway….The doctors say it wasn’t anything I did or even my Mum or Dad did, but I can’t often believe it must have been some one’s fault” (Sean’s Story).

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for children with diabetes or families with diabetic children to know each other and share experience, in order to support each other both physically and emotionally. There are hospitals like Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in US providing on-line and paper guides for children with special needs and their families to follow when they are in transition.

After researching the current situation of youth with chronic conditions, our group found that most preexisting supports focus on educating the children to face their special conditions and try to live like everyone else. However, we think that “facing their special conditions” and “trying to live like everyone else” are psychologically conflicting ideas: it is really hard for a young adult to know their difference than others, and at the same time manage their life as the same as other healthy teens. Therefore, our group believe that we should create an environment for these teens, where chronic conditions are common senses and personal health is something everyone should care about. We think the best media for this idea is compulsory education integrated into high school curriculum.

There are three main concerns related to the transition: 1. Youth and family feel the loss of respected caregivers and are forced to trust the new and unknown. 2. Parents’ inability to buy into youth’s independence or assessing developmental readiness for transition. 3.Pediatric professionals sometimes underestimate the potential independence of youth (Transition to Adult Care).

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With this idea, we visited a local high school — Eric Hamber Secondary. We talked to several counsellors and teachers about educating high school students about common chronic illnesses, and asked about the current situations related to high students with chronic illnesses.

Most teachers thought that students with these conditions definitely do not want to be treated differently, even if the support offered is to make their experience easier. This becomes a tricky part for the teachers, as they have to treat these students the same way as others, but to also give proper help when they really need it.

We asked about what they would do if a student with a chronic condition comes to them for help. Most teachers think that because they do not know a lot about the health care system, they would probably tell the students to go to an expert (doctors or nurses). However, the school nurse only comes to teach the health section in PE class, and does not offer individual service. In this case, there is a disconnection between the general health system and school education curriculum.

When we talk about inserting a special educational kit about

PRIMARY RESEARCHDESIGN PROPOSAL

BC High schools provide health information of first aid, vaccination dates and several forms of personal health condition that students have to fill in before entering school. The medical department usually does not provide advice about illness or old injuries (Health Information).

chronic illnesses into the current high school education, some teachers mention that they have to follow the curriculum which makes them less flexible on teaching extra knowledge. However, these teachers still encourage us to continue this idea, and gave us some thoughts about education in general: education is a tool to give the students a main idea to generate their interests about something and they will do more on these interests later in their spare time. They won’t remember the details, so the goal is to give them the main concepts.

Then, we decided to research how much medical knowledge do high school students and teachers know by having them do a co-creation and a survey.

The co-creation kit is for students, and it included three sections: match game, role-playing game and mini survey.

The survey is for teachers, and it included two sections: multiple choice and short answer.

CO-CREATION & SURVEYDESIGN PROPOSAL

CO-CREATION The first section of the co-creation kit (see right) asks participants to choose pictures (given) that they think match each illness the most, and put them under each illness. The conditions we included are diabetes, epilepsy, lupus, juvenile arthritis, asthma and polio. These are the most common chronic illnesses children may have. This section aims to find out how much high school students know about common chronic conditions.

The second section asks participants to imagine they are going to see the doctor by themselves and to answer several personal health questions. These questions require students to know their blood type, allergies, last vaccination and tetanus shot. This section aims to find out how much are students aware of their own health conditions.

The last section asks about participants’ attitudes and confidence towards their personal health and where they want to get more information about health care at school.

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Co-creation kit

17Survey

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SURVEY The first section of the survey (see left) asks the participants whether it is necessary for both teachers and students to learn about chronic illnesses, and how confident the teachers are to give a class about chronic illnesses. The participants are given a range from 1 to 7 to choose from. In the second section The participants are asked to imagine that they have to give a class about chronic conditions, and how they present the knowledge.

This survey aims to find out what are teachers’ attitudes toward educating special medical knowledge and health care.

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RESULTS We were able to have 10 students and 2 teachers do the co-creation and the survey for us.

The statistics of the co-creation (see top right) shows that the chronic conditions students know about the most are diabetes, juvenile athletes and asthma, which shows that students know more about the visible and popular conditions than the invisible ones. In term of personal health, students know more about their blood type, allergy and vaccination dates than how to handle emergencies. This indicates that students remember things better through personal experience than receiving knowledge passively. We also found that students have concern for their health, but they do not know how much they need to know about their own health conditions.

The statistics of the survey (see bottom right) shows that most teachers believe it is really necessary for both teachers and students to learn about basic chronic conditions. The teachers also listed several ways they might use to present medical knowledge like in-class discussion and role-playing games.

In this case, our group decide to focus our design on interactive user experience.

Match Game:  

        Right/Know      Wrong/Not know   

Diabetes       10        0 

Epilepsy        4       6 

Lupus          6       4 

Juvenile Athletes       8       2 

Asthma         10        0 

Polio          4       6 

 

Role Play game: 

 

1. Blood type       8      2 

 

2. Tetanus shot       4      6 

 

3. Allergic to medications    8      2 

 

4. Vaccinations       8      2 

 

5. Other allergies     10      0 

 

6. Allergic reaction      4      6 

 

 

Mini survey: 

 

1. Health concern   2 a littile bit     3 average    5 very 

 

2. Health confidence  3 a little bit    7 average 

 

3. Which class    4 Science    3 PE      3 Social Studies 

 

 

 

     

1. challenge         3     6  average 4.5 

2. teacher to learn      6    7  average 6.5 

3. student to learn      5    7  average 6 

4. format of the kit           on‐line             in‐class 

5. system for the kit      social studies     social studies 

6. popular class               PE        social studies 

 

Short questions: 

 

‐Role‐play/ in‐class discussion 

‐in class activities/ video documantory/ online examples / role play  

So… in‐class & role play 

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DESIGN PROBLEMDESIGN PROPOSAL

KEY WORDS:

EXPERIENCE

INTEREST

GUIDE

FILTER

During the research process, we found several questions we should be concerned with before we generate the concepts:

- Why students need to take responsibility for their own health?

- How can we make students be aware of and be interested in taking good care of themselves?

- How do students learn knowledge the best?

On the other hand, we also found some aspects of students and teachers we need to have concern with during our design:

- The students need to have experience, in order to remember certain knowledge.

- The teachers need to have teaching guides to allow/help them present knowledge.

- The medical knowledge needs to be filtered to certain portion which is basic and necessary enough for the teachers and students to know well of.

In other words, the design needs to function as a bridge to link students, teachers and the medical knowledge.

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We decided to create a curriculum insert of high school Planning 10 for teachers, which provides teachers guides to give classes about personal health. We also planned to include an interactive activity in the insert, which offers students an in-class experience of handling personal health concerns, in order to let them know the importance for taking responsibility of their own health.

The final outcome needs to be a physical package or folder. It needs to be really clearly written and easy to follow. The package or folder needs to be able to be inserted into the current Planning 10 curriculum, and also function effectively on its own.

DESIGN CRITERIADESIGN PROPOSAL

KEY WORDS:

INSERT

CLEAR

EASY TO USE

EFFECTIVE

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USER PROFILEA teacher who teaches planning 10 is going to give lessons to a class of 30 students in grade 10.

The teacher does not know much about what and how students need to learn about personal health. He/she wants to have some form of guide to reference, in order to give the lessons effectively and efficiently.

The teacher has extra time of two classes in this semester to give extra lessons to the students.

SCHEDULE

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BRAINSTORMING & IDEATIONAt the beginning, we had ideas on on-line game, individual diary assignment, in-class discussion and in-class activities. Because the final outcome needs to offer an interactive experience, we decided to create an in-class activity.

We researched about popular in-class activities in high school. There are debates, art projects and board races (Schieltz). Debates offer students opportunities to think, make decisions and work with others; art projects offer them time to work on their own; board races allow students to use knowledge they absorbed in or out class to compete with each other.

Combining all the above features, our group decided to create a card game as an in-class activity.

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We researched about differen designs of card games, in order to get a sense of what elements a card game design needs to have.

GAME SEEDS CARD GAME Game Seeds is a card game designed by the Utrecht School of the Arts for brainstorm sessions on Character and Game Design (Card Game). The design uses simple icons to represent characters and game features. It also uses bright colours to create the general tone of the set and the visual hierarchy of each card as well.

VISUAL RESEARCHBRAINSTORMING & IDEATION

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UNO Uno is a card game played with a specially printed deck by a group of people. Its different colour codes clearly represent different functions. The circle pattern unites the whole set, and the icons/numbers are visually large enough to drive users attentions.

KEY WORDS:

SIMPLE ICON

BRIGHT COLOUR

VISUAL HIERARCHY

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The first thought we had is a role-playing card game (see right).

The set of the game includes Character Cards, General Question/Answer Cards, Condition Cards and Condition Treatments Cards for both the doctor and the patient.

Students will be assigned into pairs. One of them plays the doctor, and another one plays the patient. The setting is in the hospital, and it is the first time the patient goes to see the doctor. The doctor will start the game by asking general questions to the patient. The patient has to choose one condition from his/her condition cards, and answer questions based on the information written on that card. The doctor has to guess the condition based on the information the patient gives, and give proper treatments.

If the doctor guesses the condition right and gives the proper treatments, the doctor wins one point; if the doctor guesses the condition right but gives a wrong treatment, this round ends in draw; if the doctor fails to guess the condition, the patient wins one point.

We chose sky blue and beige to express a feeling of the hospital. We also used three colours to represent three different levels of the seriousness of each illness.

INITIAL CONCEPTBRAINSTORMING & IDEATION

Colour pallet

General Questions

HOW ARE YOU?

HOW ARE YOU

FEELING SICK?

General Questions

The Doctor

Diabetes

Slow healing woundsBlurred vision

Excessive thirstExcessive urination

FatigueWeight loss

Diabetes Treatments

DIET CONTROL

MEDICINE

INJECTION OF INSULIN

The Patient

Diabetes

Slow healing woundsBlurred vision

Excessive thirstExcessive urination

FatigueWeight loss

Diabetes Treatments

DIET CONTROL

MEDICINE

INJECTION OF INSULIN

Reply

I AM FEELING BETTER.

I AM GETTING WORSE.

Reply

Initial draft

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We found that the initial concept does not meet the requirement of generating students’ interests in their own personal health, because the conditions we chose do not occur that often in most students. In this case, students will not be interested in the game and will not relate this activity to their own health conditions.

On the other hand, we need to build a guide for the teacher to let him/her know what is the purpose of this activity, how should the teacher assign this activity, what should the teacher expect the students to learn and understand, and how should the teacher evaluate the students.

In this case, we changed our idea of just a card game into a idea of a folder of curriculum insert which contains a rationale, guides for the teacher and a card game activity.

REFINED CONCEPTBRAINSTORMING & IDEATION

NEED TO HAVE:

RATIONALE

GUIDE

CARD GAME

Sketches

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FINAL PROPOSED SOLUTIONThe final proposed solution is an insert that provides information and materials for teachers to implement a modified section of personal health care in high school Planning 10.

The folder of the insert includes three parts: a rationale, a teacher’s instructional guide, a set of cards. The rationale explains the goal of this section and where it fits into the current teaching curriculum. The guide provides introductions of the game and the materials/cards. There are extra cards attached to the folder for the teacher to make more copies.

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We chose dark malachite and grass green which show the sense of health and education. The orange and yellow add a vivid tone to the design, which will make the design more friendly and attractive to high school students.

The typeface we chose is Archer. It is a slab serif style typeface designed in 2001 by Hoefler & Frere-Jones for use in Martha Stewart Living magazine. The face is unique for combining the geometric structure of twentieth century European slab-serifs but imbuing the face with a domestic, less strident tone of voice (Archer). In this case, this typeface express both the sense of seriousness (health education) and the sense of joyfulness (card game).

We also uses a pentagon as a decorative element in our design. A pentagon is a self-intersecting geometric shape which is simple and easy to structure into patterns. Our insert is like a pentagon, which can be put into a group of pentagons (the current education curriculum) without breaking the balance, but it can also perfectly sit on its own.

COLOUR, TYPEFACE, ELEMENTFINAL PROPOSED SOLUTION

ARCHERABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP QRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890

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The rationale explians the purpose and goal of this insert:

INSERT RATIONALEFINAL PROPOSED SOLUTION

- Students will become better informed about their health, and better understand decisions made in regard to their health.

- Students with chronic conditions will be treated equally without special attention to them, resulting that through this experience these students will be better equipped with a transition from the juvenile health care to the adult health care.

- This insert can be fit into the Healthy and Well section in the current Planning 10 curriculum (see below).

Planning 10

Rationale

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The guide provides information about the cards, how to play the card game, and how to practice this game in the class and a class schedule for reference.

TEACHER’S INSTRUCTIONAL GUIDEFINAL PROPOSED SOLUTION

HOW TO PLAY:

Step 1: The teacher divides students into teams of 5. Step 2: The teacher issues 5 same Condition Cards for each team, each student should pick one card and they will have 5 minutes to remember the information on the card. Step 3: The teacher will pick one student from each team who holds the same condition card and ask them one question related to their conditions. The first person who answer the question right, gets a point for the team. This continues for 10 rounds and the team with the most points wins.

Instructional guide

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MATERIALS (CARDS & SHEETS)FINAL PROPOSED SOLUTION

There are basic level and advanced level in the card game. There are condition cards for students and Q & A cards for teachers in each level.

The conditions we chose for the basic level are Allergy, Broken arm, Cut with rusty metal, Ear infection and Food poisoning. The conditions we chose for advanced level are Asthma, Minor concussion, Anemia, Frostbite and Appendicitis.

There are one sheet of Homework and one sheet of Evaluation. Because our goal is to make students be aware of their own health conditions, while we can not ask students to provide their personal information in class, we created this homework. It asks students to collect their personal health information, which is a further and deeper learning than the in-class activity. The evaluation sheet is a guide for teacher to evaluate the students in this learning section.

Throat swollen

Feel bloated

Diarrhea

Ate a bar of chocolate had traces of peanuts

Ligament torn

Lower arm bone broken

Fell from the stairs

Sweating a lot

Get stabbed by a rusty nail

Throat swollen / hard to swallow

Right ear rings

Did not dry ears after swimming

Pain increases during night time

Feel feverish

Diarrhea

Had rotten milk

Extreme physical excursion

Have my inhaler everyday

Experience ringing in my ears

Headache

Hit by a baseball

Sweating

Take iron supplements

Skin gets red and itchy

Got frostbitten last night

Right abdomen hurts / press hurts

Fever

ASTHMAMINORCONCUSSION ANEMIA

FROSTBITEAPPENDICITIS ALLERGY

to PEANUTSBREAKyour ARM

CUT withRUSTY METAL

EARINFECTION

FOODPOISONING

Cards for students

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ALLERGY1. What was your allergy that triggered the attack?A bar of chocolate that had traces of PEANUTS

2. Is any part of your body swollen?THROAT swollen

3. Have you had any bloating, diarrhea or vomiting?BLOATING & DIARRHEA

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

BROKEN ARM1. How did you break your arm?Fell from the STAIRS

2. Which part of your arm did you break?LOWER arm

3. Do you feel pain in any other parts of your arm?UPPER arm / LIGAMENT torn

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

CUT WITH RUSTY METAL1. What is it that stabbed you?A rusty metal NAIL

2. Have you excessively sweat?Yes

3. Have you had di�culty swallowing?Yes

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

EAR INFECTION1. Do you know what causes this condition?Did not dry ears after SWIMMING

2. Do your ears ring?Only the RIGHT one rings

3. Does the pain increase at night?Yes

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

FOOD POISONING1. What did you eat?Rotten MILK

2. Have you experienced any diarrhea or vomiting?DIARRHEA

3. Do you feel feverish?A little bit

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

Q & A Cards for teachers

ASTHMA1. Do you know what are the causes of asthma?Extreme physical EXCURSION

2. Do you regularly keep your inhaler on you?Yes

3. Have you taken anything to ease your condition?No

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

MINOR CONCUSSION1. Have you been in an accident recently?Hit by a BASEBALL

2. Have you experienced any headaches?Yes

3. Do you experience ringing in your ears?Yes

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

ANEMIA1. Do you take iron supplements?Yes

2. Have you had swelling in the legs or arms?No

3. Have you experienced vomiting, increased sweating, or blood in stool?SWEATING

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

FROSTBITE1. When did you get frostbitten?Last night

2. Have you experienced itching or pain?ITCHING

3. What colour are your hands when frostbitten?RED

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

APPENDICTIS1. Which area of your abdomen hurts?RIGHT

2. Have you experienced vomiting, fever, or nausea?FEVER

3. Does it hurt after I press down on your abdomen?Yes

Q & A Cards for teachers (pick 2 to ask)

Q & A Cards for teachers

Q & A cards for teachers

Evaluation sheet

Homework sheet

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PROJECT REFLECTION- The whole design works well as a package to provide a clear guide to the teacher.

- The content of the rationale needs to be rephrased a little bit more specifically.

- The instructional guide uses diagrams well to explain the game.

- The design of the cards uses the methodology of icons and colours well to communicate information. However, certain icons do not communicate meanings as well as others.

- The insert only has 2 lessons, which seems to be too short for students to digest the knowledge and give feedback.

- The link between the card game activity and the homework seems to be a little bit weak, which does not guarantee that students will relate their personal health to what they learned in the class.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Archer.” Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://www.typography. com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100033>.

“Card Game: Lizzy Wanders.” Lizzy Wanders. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://lizzywanders.wordpress.com/tag/card-game/>.

Eric Hamber Secondary School. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. <http://hamber.vsb.bc.ca/>.

“Health Information - Eric Hamber Secondary School.” Home - Eric Hamber Secondary School. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://hamber.vsb.bc.ca/health_information/>.

Ministry of Education, British Columbia. “Learning Resources: Planning 10.” March 30, 2006.

My Diabetic Child. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. <http://www.mydiabetic-child.com/>.

“Psychological Complications of Chronic Illness - Clinical Health Topics.” Children’s Hospital Boston. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. <http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site1497/mainpageS1497P0.html>.

“Sean’s Story.” Royal College of Psychiatrists. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. <http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfo/mentalhealthandgrowingup/chronicphysicalillness/seansstory.aspx>.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Schieltz, Matthew. “Classroom Activities for High School | EHow.com.” EHow | How to Videos, Articles & More - Discover the Expert in You. | EHow.com. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://www.ehow.com/list_6374315_classroom-activities-high-school.html>.

“Transition to Adult Care.” Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI, Is a Member of Children’s Hospital and Health System - Home Page. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. <http://www.chw.org/display/PPF/DocID/43541/router.asp>.

UNO instruction sheet, 1983, International Games Ltd.

Waite, Peter. “Too Young for Chronic Illness: An Interview with Laurie Edwards - HealingWell Blog.” HealingWell Blog. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. <http://blog.healingwell.com/2011/04/too-young-for-chronic-illness-interview.html>.

Lois (Liuwei) Wang | DESN 310 Core Design Studio IV | Project 3 Process Book