Discovery Kids: The Yuckiest Site on the Internet!
By Jeff Roberts
Kids are fascinated by things that are gross. In fact, they can be
so fascinated by gross things that they might even want to learn something
about them. That's the premise behind "The Yuckiest Site on the
Internet", an edu-taining web site which teaches kids about such
important things as boogers, farts and cockroaches.
Yucky is definitely designed to attract kids' attention. Bright primary
colors in the background, large and sloppy-looking text, and cartoon
pictures of worms mixed with pictures of real kids spitting, peeing
and barfing. The site's hosts are Wendell the Worm, a cartoon worm
reporter, and his real-kid friend, Dora (both of whom appear only
as still pictures). There's minimal animation; nothing interesting
in itself, but enough to make the site eye-catchy.
The site has four sections. There's "Ask Wendell", where
kids can type in questions (I don't think my question ever got answeres).
There's also "Gross and Cool Body", "Worm World",
and "Roach World", which are self-explanatory. My favorite
part is Gross and Cool Body, which has subsections about Belches and
Gas, Bad Breath, Snot and Boogers, Dandruff, Zits, Ear Wax, Eye Gunk,
Vomit, Spit, Hiccups, Funny Bone, Stinky Pits, Scabs and Pus, Gurgling
Stomach, Pee, Poop, and Ankle Sprains (I thought that last item was
an odd addition). When you go to one of these, say, Poop, it gives
you a page with a fun little graphic, sometimes accompanied by a sound
(a toilet flushing, in this case), and some funny alternative expressions
for the item (ca-ca, do-do, stool, crap, &c.). But here's the
trick: it also hits you with scientific facts and information. All
of this is in text, portrayed as a conversation between Dora and Wendell.
Wendell answers questions such as, "Why do we poop?", "What
is poop made of?", "Why does poop smell?" and "How
much do I poop?". The answers can actually be quite scientific,
talking about body systems, and using words like "microscopic"
and "organism".
This actually points to the key problem I've found with this site.
I don't remember learning any kind of scientific vocabulary until
middle school, 7th grade actually (I also admittedly may have learned
this stuff a little sooner than most kids in this country). I have
to wonder if the age group which is interested in boogers and pee
is the same age group that would be ready to learn about things like
the digestive and cardiovascular systems. I suppose it wouldn't be
too bad to expose kids to this stuff earlier. I just think that kids
who are lured in by the catchy, gross and provocative introductory
parts of the site might be turned off by the wordy, scientific, and
largely boring content.
It looks like a fun site on the outside, and, for people (like me)
who like science, it's got some fun things on the inside. But if the
goal of this site is to get kids interested in science, it might not
really work. At any rate, it's nice to know that someone is paying
attention to the stuff kids really care about.