Our Green Trail

Step 1:  Sign up!
Have you signed up to play Our Green Trail yet? No?  What are you waiting for!  Hit the yellow ‘Login’ sign.  Have a grown-up help you put in your email address.  Once you have entered your grown-up’s email address, you will automatically receive an email with your next steps.  So, open up your email account and look for an email from Our Green Trail.  There will be a green button that says ‘get started’ – push that button and we’ll see you soon!

Step 2:  Design your profile
Ready to start designing your profile?  If not you can always come back.  At any time you can make changes to your house by clicking the ‘Show my home’ button and clicking edit in your profile.  Ok, let’s get started.  Check that your email is correct – that will be your login name.  Now pick a password.  It can be whatever you want, but make sure it is easy to remember!  Pick your name for your house and your family.  When other people click on your house, this name will be visible. Almost done with this screen.  How many grown-ups in your family? How many kids?  Enter those numbers in the drop down menus.  Now comes the fun part – picking your house!  Hit the next step button just to the right of your family.   Select your house and its color and push submit.  You can change the color and style of your house at any time by editing your house in the ‘Show my home’ screen.  Watch you house be built from the ground up!  If you ever need to find you house, you’ll know your house has a star over it.

Step 3:  Explore the community
What’s going on in the Our Green Trail community?  Now that you’ve joined Our Green Trail, you can see the you aren’t helping the environment alone – there are lots of families all around you doing the same thing.  See those big yellow arrows?  If you click on those, you can explore different communities.  The arrows on the left and right bring you to ‘different communities’ of houses to the left and right.  If you hit the arrow on the top of the screen that will bring you to an aerial view – aerial view means you can look down on the communities from up in the sky.  Give it a try!  In aerial view, if you ever want to come back to you house, just push the house icon in the middle of the four arrows.

Step 4:  Challenges
How did your exploration go?  I bet you’re wondering why some houses look different then yours – some have swing sets and gardens, and some even have chickens.  When you see those things by a family’s house, it means that family is being green and helping out the environment!  What’s that? You want to do that too? Let’s get started then.  You see the ribbon in the center of the screen that says ‘Show my challenges’?   Click it!  On this website, the way to earn cool things for you house, is by doing green things in you real-life  home.  To start, either have the computer pick a challenge for you, by clicking ‘Get a Random Challenge’, or pick one yourself by clicking ‘Choose a Challenge’.

Step 5:  Completing Challenges
Did you pick ‘Choose a Challenge’?  We’ll walk you through it.  On the right side of you screen you will see six boxes.  Each of those boxes contains challenges from a different category.  If you were to press ‘What Goes Around’, you would get challenges related to the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).  ‘Bright Ideas’ will present a challenge about saving energy.  Click on any of the six challenge boxes.  We picked ‘Bright Ideas’.  When you click one of the challenge categories, a list of challenges for that category, appears below.  Pick a challenge that sounds good to you.  When you do, on the left side of your screen you will see a list of directions to complete that challenge.  Read through the directions, and if you decide that you are up to the challenge, click the accept challenge button just below the directions.  Now it’s time to go do the challenge!  Click the green ‘go back’ button to bring you back to the main challenge screen and go out and do the challenge!

Step 6:  Reporting on Challenges and Rewards
How did your challenge go?  Are you ready to report back?  Ok, just before you left to go do your challenge, you hit the ‘go back’ button.  In front of you should be the main challenge screen.  On the right side of the screen is a list titled ‘Your Current Challenges’.   To report back on the challenge you just finished, find the title in that list of challenges and click on it.  That will bring you right to the spot where you report back your results and get your points for completing a challenge!  Every time you complete a challenge you are closer to earning a reward for your house.  The computer is pretty smart.  It knows when you have enough points to get a new reward.  When the time comes for you to pick a reward, a box will pop up and you can pick from your current level.  After you have picked a reward, you can either keep doing challenges and earning more rewards for you house, or click the ‘Show my home’ button to see your new reward in place.  Congratulations!  Keep up the good work!

What is Our Green Trail?
Along with an exhibit featured at Boston Children's Museum, www.OurGreenTrail.org exists to help children and families learn about 'green' choices they can make in their everyday lives.  Through challenges issued online, but completed in a user's own home, families will learn how to make environmentally friendly choices, such as ways to reduce their water and electrical consumption. The goal of www.OurGreenTrail.org is to empower children and families to step away from their computers and work together to make choices and changes in their lives that will positively impact the environment. Our Green Trail is brought to you by Boston Children's Museum, sponsored by National Grid.

How does it work?
Players create an online profile by choosing the type of house they would like to inhabit, and by answering a few questions about their family.  Once set up, users can undertake challenges, track their 'green behaviors', make 'green' pledges, and invite others to join the cause.  Periodically, there will be special offers for Our Green Trail users.

Who is Our Green Trail made for?
Our Green Trail was designed for families with children aged 5 or older, but it is open to all ages.

Why did you create Our Green Trail?
Boston Children's Museum is the first 'green' museum in Boston.  Inspired by Boston Children's Museum's commitment to operating 'green', Our Green Trail helps families to be more green in the choices they make in their daily lives - at school and at home - as they use water, electricity, consume materials and energy, and decide what to do with the things they no longer need.  Boston Children's Museum has made a commitment to being more 'green.'  We hope to help our visitors adopt some of the same behaviors and, together, reduce our impact on the environment.

Is it safe?
Our Green Trail is very safe and has been developed to meet or exceed child internet safety guidelines.  No personal information will be shared, and only you will be able to view or access your family's account information

How much does it cost to play?
No purchase is necessary to play Our Green Trail.  Entry into this online world is absolutely free, and anyone who registers gets full access to all activites on Our Green Trail.

Do I need a special program to play?
There are no special programs needed to use Our Green Trail.  As long as your computer meets the minimum requirements below, you will be able to access and enjoy Our Green Trail.

What are the requirements for my computer?
Mimimum Supported Browsers: 

Windows: Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 7.2, Firefox 1.0, AOL Explorer 1.5
Macintosh: Safari 1.2.3, Internet Explorer 5.2.3, Firefox 1.5
Flash Player 10
High Speed Internet
Monitor Resolution: 1024x768
1GB RAM
2GHz CPU
Javascript Enabled

Will my information be shared?
Our Green Trail is extremely safe and has been developed to meet or exceed child internet saftey guidelines.  None of your account information will be shared, and it will only be viewable by you in the profile section of your account.

Why do you need a parent's email address?
In keeping with child internet safety guidelines, all children under the age of 13 need parental permission to register online.  First, a confirmation email will be sent to the parent's email address provided with a link to activate your family's Our Green Trail account.  That email address is then kept on file in case you or your child forget the account username or password.  If you forget the password to your account, an email containing your account information will be sent to the address provided. 

Your email will remain private and will not be shared.  You will only receive emails from Our Green Trail containing information concerning your account or from Boston Children's Museum announcing Green events happening at the Museum.

Can I change my account information?
You can access your account information from your Home Profile at any time.  Simply click the Edit My Account button to make any changes.

What if I lose or forget my password?
Your email address will be kept on file when you register for Our Green Trail.  In the event that you forget the password to your account, an email containing your account information will be sent to the address provided. Click here to retrieve your password.