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Reviewed Site: GirlsHealth

Site Content Area: Fitness, Active Lifestyles, Body, Nutrition

Site Requirements/Access:

This site has games, so you will need Flash enabled to play them. There is a strong JavaScript base, which means you need to have that enabled to see most of the pages. One game needs the arrow keys so be sure yours are functional. I did have a challenge with some of the images coming up with red x’s, even though I had my setting to view. An audio card is imperative to many of the games and activities.

Overview:

Don’t fret when you go to the site and see that it focuses on girls and their needs, ‘cuz there is great information for either gender and they do address concerns for boys as well-they even have a special link for that!

There are many Tabs (Body; Fitness; Nutrition; Illness & Disability; Drugs, Alcohol, & Smoking; Your Emotions; Relationships; Bullying; Safety; and Your Future) to chose from when navigating through the site. Once clicking on a tab, you will find that it is content-rich with many options, as well as a separate navigation system down the left side. Due to the nature of sites rich in content, which have deep navigational systems, the possibility of reviewing each and every page plus all the details, is near to impossible, so before you send your students to the site, be sure to do a thorough check yourself.

On the front page, you will find the tabs at the top, and four columns under them; the far left column has the sections What’s New, Healthy Events for March, and Healthy News. Each of these have links taking you to specific pages, information, or articles. The middle two columns have additional sections: Your Health from A-Z, Spotlight On, Free Stuff, Take a Quiz, Powerful Girls like you need Powerful Bones, Stories from New Moon-Girl Media, For Parents and Caregivers, and for Teachers and Educators. The far right column contains Speak Up! and Vote!

My general feeling is that this site is great for upper elementary students and pretty good for middle school students; however I would think that high school students would think it a tad “baby-ish” for them, although there are some good features they could utilize.

All of these possibilities have wonderful information, worthy of your time, however as usually, keep track of why you are there and where you are going or you can get lost in click-land!=)

The Look:

The main page has a Blog-like look with a top banner and initial tabs to navigate the site. Underneath you will see the standard column set-up, each with its own color background. The font is larger and easy to read, which is nice for those of us getting older and cannot even see the small font let alone be able to read it. Your eyes will automatically focus on the middle two columns, which are centered on topics for students. If you don’t scroll all the way down to the bottom, you will miss the teacher’s section link all together; I would have liked to seen that at the top of their navigation system.

When moving to another page, the look does change to a plain white background with the same banner on the top, and the content section is a little drab in appearance.

Features of the Site:

Front Page:

Your Health A-Z: is an index listing links to the top tab navigation sections.

Spot Light: I did not figure out exactly why this section is relevant, but it appears to “spot light” different girls doing different things. I did not find this piece useful, but maybe one of you can come up with a way to make it relevant to our students.

Free Stuff: again, a list of clickable links, opening up a few documents and internal links.

Take a Quiz: another list of links, taking you to specific quizzes. The quizzes are easy reading and most of the target population should be able to complete them independently. The nice thing is once you answer all the questions and hit submit, it will take you to a results page. This page will show the question, the correct answer, the rationale behind each answer, and tell you if you got the answer correct; that whole instant gratification in play!

Powerful Girls Have Powerful Bones: takes you to a completely different looking page, with a strong purple background with four distinct sections. Please be aware there is no way back to the original site except via your back button. If you click on one of the boxes to the right of the banner, you will have the opportunity to watch a “short” film. OK, maybe not what the movie industry calls a “short” but for our purposes, a little flick with good messages. The bottom left, Carla and Friends, will take you to the page with interactive games. (To be honest, I did play all the games, more than once! I got frustrated after the third level of the Jump& Skip game because I could not figure out how to hit two spots at the same time; moving on! The Snack Attack game does have inappropriate snacks like pie, but is kind of a fun eye-hand coordination activity. I’ll have to admit, I played the Mix-Up Madness game until completing the last level. So even us teachers can get caught up in playing “video” games).

The bottom right has links taking you to what appears to be a different web site, but is actually part of this site. This section has all new tabs on the top (Healthy Bones, Staying Strong, Carla’s Space, and Fun & Downloads). Under each of these tabs, there is sub-navigation, linking to additional pages.

I would like to point out that under the Healthy Bones; there is one link to a list of external web sites, which I though helpful. There is also a pretty cool interactive skeleton.

Staying Strong has an easy to use food label page and a Fitness Fun page where you can click on a sport, which will take you to another page with sport-specific information (watch for the external link on the bottom of those pages, taking you to www.bam.gov -another good resource for additional information).

Carla’s Space is just that, a mini-version of her journal or Blog.

Fun and Downloads will take you to the landing page for the games, quizzes, wallpaper downloads, screen savers, calendar, and IM icon download (your IM program must be on for this to work, but all the images came up with little red x’s for me).

New Moon-Girl Media: takes several clicks before getting to an article, which are all written by girls.

Speak Up!: a place where students can post their feelings about different topics or ask questions; similar to a Blog.

Vote!: offers one question for the students to vote on or answer, with the latest results of the poll.

Parents & Caregivers: is designed with these folks in mind; contains a separate navigation on the left side, leading to even more links, information, and articles. I’m sure there is something there you can share with your families!

For Teachers & Educators: here you will find the “what about boys” links; a list of resources by topic, which is a great way to search; federal funding and campaigns; fact sheets that could be easily incorporated into your curriculum; a place where you can drop suggestions for the site; a small glossary; and other resources.

Now let’s take a look at what you will find under each tab…

Body Tab: this section has a multitude of further places to check out. Again, its own navigation down the side, which includes your reproduction health, understanding puberty, getting your period, living with poly cystic ovary syndrome, getting enough sleep, grooming and hygiene, fighting germs, abstinence-safe sex is no sex, links to more information. Most of these have additional sub-sections.

Fitness Tab: has the following sub-sections: why fitness matters, fitness basics, getting started, getting a good workout, playing organized sports, keeping safe and injury-free, links to more information. We will take a longer journey into this section later in this review, so keep reading!

Nutrition Tab: contains The My Pyramid food guide, the deal with food label, what’s a healthy weight, Vitamins and Nutrients, Special food issues, vegetarian eating, Bone health and Nutrition, and Links to more information.

Illness & Disability Tab: has these links-Born with an illness or disability, Learning you have an illness or disability, Spinal cord injury, Traumatic brain injury, Living with an illness or disability, Rehabilitation, Becoming independent, Games and activities, Medical issues, Medical terms, Do you know someone with an illness or disability?, and Links to more information.

Drugs, alcohol, and smoking Tab: has only a few links-Straight talk about drugs, Straight talk about alcohol, and Straight talk about tobacco, and Links to more information.

Your emotions Tab: Feeling good about yourself, Depression or feeling & blue, Cutting and hurting yourself , Handling stress, Running away, Suicide, Body image and eating disorders, More on emotional health, and Links to more information.

Relationships Tab: has all of these sub-sections: If you need help now, Healthy relationships, Friendships, Dating, Dealing with conflict, Parents, grandparents, and guardians, Sisters and brothers, Your community, and Links to more information.

Bullying Tab: With all the No-Bullying campaigns, you will find these resources useful: Bullying is, Why girls bully, Why some girls are bullied, Cyber-bullying, Bullying hurts, How being a bully can hurt you, Stopping bullying, Hazing, and Links to more information.

Safety Tab: with some many of youngsters staying home alone, these resources will be good tools to introduce: In relationships, At home, Having fun and staying safe, In school, On the road, On the Internet, and Links to more information.

Your future Tab: another great page of resources: Discovering your interests and talents, Getting experience, After high school graduation, Getting organized, Dealing with a juvenile record, and Links to more information.

Let us go back to the Fitness Tab and surf through everything this section has to offer. The front page sports a list of links which are the same as the ones down the side, but worded just a little differently so the user can figure out what they are looking for even if they do not know the “official” title or subject matter.

Why Fitness Matters has clear and concise information with internal links, as well as a definition of physical fitness.

Losing Weight for Health doesn't’t have as much information as I would have liked and it does have the misleading BMI calculator. There definitely could be some further work done on this page.

Fitness Basics contains quite a bit of information that could be utilized easily in the class, i.e. different types of exercise, what your body needs, a link to a stretching and warming up routine (with only one AVOID stretch-not too bad), and a link to suggested ideas for certain kinds of exercise. I just have to say, there is this weird image on the side of the page, anyone who can tell me what it is will get kudos all around!

Getting Started has an excuse-free sections where anything the students can come up with for not being active is addressed, so no excuses! It briefly touches on proper attire, hydration, and warming-up/cooling-down. They do have a nice Program Planning Tracker form, easily downloadable.

Getting a Good Workout features the levels of exercise (moderate & vigorous), plus has a handy little Target Heart Rate Calculated embedded in the page.

Playing Organized Sports has only a small amount of content, but may be enough to stimulate some good conversations and get the students thinking.

Keeping Safe and Injury-Free tells us what a sports physical is, the importance of using the right equipment for the sport or activity, along with some warning signs of over doing it.

Links to More Information hosts not only a long list of external links but also some additional content worth exploring such as Steroids, Dealing with a Sports Injury, Obesity, Pilates, Sportsmanship, Sports Supplements, T’ai Chi, and Yoga. Overall, another great page to get quality information.

Conclusion:

As with all the reviews, there is so much content and so many places you can go, if you do not stay focused, you will find yourself in “click-land” and who knows where you may end up! Although the site seems to target middle school students, there are parts that will work for elementary school children, as well as high school students. My recommendation for using this with high schoolers is to give them the direct link (URL) rather then the main web site URL. I think if they go to the front page, it may turn them off, but if they are directed to the exact page or article, it would be a worthwhile lesson.

Although the inside pages are a tab drab with the white background, they are extremely easy to read and there is no mistaking where you are in the site. You will need to be cautious of the proverbial looping of internal links, taking you to the same place from many different links.

With the vast amount of information contained on this site it is easy to get overwhelmed; do a quick look-see, don’t get caught looking too deeply at each page, decide what you want to delve into, and then go for it.

I truly enjoyed this site and will definitely use it as a source for information and another place to send students, in the future. As always, I hope you enjoyed this review and feel it was useful in your pursuit of knowledge. Happy surfing!=)