science

Packy and Marlon

Packy and Marlon is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Packy and Marlon rather than just read about it. In short: Packy & Marlon is an educational platform video game developed by WaveQuest and published by Raya Systems for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was designed to improve self-care behavior in children with type 1 diabetes.

Key takeaways

Packy and Marlon belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Packy and Marlon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Packy and Marlon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Packy & Marlon is an educational platform video game developed by WaveQuest and published by Raya Systems for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was designed to improve self-care behavior in children with type 1 diabetes. The game achieved some success with treatment groups. It is a part of educational video game series from Raya that includes Captain Novolin, Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon and Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus. In 1998, the game was released for personal computers by Kidz Health Software.

Gameplay A gang of rats has invaded Camp Wa-kee, and stolen the food and medical supplies, hiding them in different areas of the Camp. As such, Packy and Marlon, two diabetic elephants, are tasked with retrieving the stolen goods and clearing out the malicious rodents, while also remembering to take their insulin and check their blood glucose. At the end of the game they face the evil bosses Veets and Yebur of the Lunch Room Crew.

Legacy "Packy and Marlon was designed to help remove the stigma of being different so young people with diabetes who played the game with their friends, and saw that their friends did not consider diabetes to be a big issue, would be more willing to do important self-care throughout the day, even when their friends were around. And this is what actually happened". The game is important in the history of therapeutic gaming, a concept that originated in the mid-1990s with games such as this and the asthma-focused Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus. A six-month study undertaken in 1997 on behalf of Click Health by researchers at Stanford University's Medical Center on 59 diabetic children ages 8 to 16 found that, after playing the game, the children were four times less likely to require urgent care visits than children who had played other games. A three-month study found that for kids with diabetes, the game "decreased their diabetes-related emergency room and urgent care visits by 77 percent". The game was also tested in Kaiser hospitals, where it was shown to have given important information to diabetics, while also encouraging the patients to offer support to each other.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Packy and Marlon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Packy and Marlon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Packy and Marlon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Packy and Marlon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Packy and Marlon

In research: Packy and Marlon appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Packy and Marlon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Packy and Marlon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1995 video games, Children's educational video games, Medical video games, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Packy and Marlon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Packy and Marlon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Packy and Marlon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Packy and Marlon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Packy and Marlon in simple terms?

Why does Packy and Marlon matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Packy and Marlon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Packy and Marlon.