Categories: News

New online game for children aims to raise farm safety awareness

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-1685" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;SND18-wk2-Farm&lowbar;Safety&lowbar;Game&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND18-wk2-Farm Safety Game" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"225" &sol;>A new free online farm safety game that children can play on smartphones&comma; computers and tablets is the latest innovation in the quest to improve farm safety&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Industry body DairyNZ&&num;8217&semi;s cowbassador&comma; Rosie the Cow&comma; has teamed up with WorkSafe and ACC to create Farm Rules&excl;&comma; an engaging way for primary school children to learn about the risks involved with certain farm activities and how to minimise or avoid them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Farm Rules&excl; has children avoiding surprise dangers while tackling the challenges of farm life&period; From driving tractors and avoiding cow pats&comma; players learn how to navigate through challenges to win the most points&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With bright graphics and plenty of sneaky scenarios&comma; players can become a farmer for a day moving cows&comma; driving quad bikes and tractors&comma; fixing broken fences and spraying gorse&period; They have to try and do all the farm work while avoiding surprise dangers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The computer game is being rolled out as part of DairyNZ&&num;8217&semi;s education programme for children&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>DairyNZ&&num;8217&semi;s brand marketing manager&comma; Andrew Fraser&comma; thinks the new game will encourage some interesting conversations between kids and their parents&period;<br &sol;>&&num;8220&semi;We all know how our children very quickly challenge us based on what they have learnt or seen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Children do a lot of their learning online now and games are a great way of interacting with them about various issues&period; We think we&&num;8217&semi;ll reach a lot of adults with a game like this in a roundabout kind of way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It will certainly raise awareness and create situations where the kids are advising their parents about what&&num;8217&semi;s a risk and how to stay safe on a farm&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he says&period;<br &sol;>&&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s also a great way to entertain your kids while helping them learn about how to stay safe on a farm&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rosie is the cow character DairyNZ uses to help children learn about farming&comma; cows and how milk is produced&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;She has her own Facebook page and visits schools and community events&period; She is the key educator in our schools programme where we provide a range of online resources for teachers that they can use in classrooms to teach everything from history to science to research skills&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;So far we&&num;8217&semi;ve also had more than 5500 children visit dairy farmers as part of the Rosie&&num;8217&semi;s World Find a Farmer programme and 900 parents have attended one of those farm visits too&period; This is the second computer game we have created and it all helps children&comma; both urban and rural&comma; to learn more about farming and how milk is produced&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Mr Fraser says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The new Farm Rules&excl; game can be played online at <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;rosiesworld&period;co&period;nz" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">www&period;rosiesworld&period;co&period;nz<&sol;a> and is also available as an app for Apple and Android smartphones and tablets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Rosie Clarke

Rosie is the managing editor here at Multimedia Pty Ltd, working across School News New Zealand and School News Australia. She has spent 10+ years in B2B journalism, and has spent some time over the last couple of years teaching as a sessional academic. Feel free to contact her at any time with editorial or magazine content enquiries.

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