The ToxRAP™ Intermediate Elementary Module (grades 3-6), "What is Wrong with the Johnson Family?," can be taught at any time of the year, but is especially suited for winter months when students' families are likely to be heating their homes. The lessons for "What is Wrong with the Johnson Family?" are described below.

Lesson One
Students read a case study about the Johnson family who are experiencing health problems. Students become Health Hazard Detectives and begin solving the mystery by following the investigative guidelines used in all of the lessons, called the ToxRAP™ Map and Framework.

Lesson Two
Students cooperatively play the "What's in the Air?" game to learn about the many possible hazards that might be causing the Johnson family's health problems. By comparing the family's signs and symptoms with the health effects of common hazards found in the home, students develop a hypothesis about which hazard(s) might be causing the health problems.

Lesson Three
Students play a game to simulate the role of oxygen in the respiratory and circulatory systems. They learn how one hazard interferes with the body's transport of oxygen and how the health effects become more severe with increased exposure.

Lesson Four
Students conduct hands-on math activities to conceptualize the size of a common unit of measurement, parts per million (ppm). The activities also illustrate how dilution can explain why exposure concentrations change with location. Students create a million dots wall chart and mark the number of dots (representing concentration levels) that can cause health effects.

Lesson Five
Students receive a report indicating an excess amount of a hazard is present in the air of the Johnson family's home. This information helps the students to refine their hypothesis for solving the mystery. A simulation activity then illustrates how exposure concentrations can vary with location because of such factors as dilution and distance from the source.

Lesson Six
To help explain the variability in health problems among the Johnson family, students participate in activities that focus on length of exposure, respiration rate and individual susceptibility. They calculate the amount of time each member of the Johnson family spends at home on a typical day and discuss how this might affect signs and symptoms. They also monitor what happens to their own respiration rates as they change their activity levels to demonstrate how respiration rates can affect how much of a hazard inhaled. Finally, students identify pre-existing health conditions in the Johnson family that could also affect how family members react to the hazard.

Lesson Seven
Students test their hypothesis by using a weight of evidence approach followed by environmental health scientists. Using answers to questions from the ToxRAP™ Framework as a way to support their conclusions about what hazard is causing the health problems, students link the "Health Problem," the "Hazard" and the "People" who are exposed following the points of the triangle of the ToxRAP™ Map. As an optional activity, students complete a risk ranking of the Johnson family members.

Lesson Eight
Students learn from a "Follow-up Inspection Report" that the cause of the health problems in the Johnson family's home has been corrected and family members have recovered from their health problems. Then, working in small groups, they brainstorm ideas about how to control the indoor air hazards identified in the "What's in the Air?" game. Finally, students write a report to the Johnson family, summarizing their ideas for controlling hazards in the home.

Lesson Nine
Through a new case study based on real events, students apply the scientific process used by the ToxRAP™ Map and Framework to another hazard. This lesson can serve to assess students' ability to understand the concepts developed in the module.