# Bag of Wonder: The Ambulance > Meet Amber, a kind paramedic. See her ambulance, help Jake after a tumble in the park, listen to a heartbeat and learn when to call 9-1-1. A free interactive 3D exhibit for children aged 2 to 6, from Curiosity's Child in Troy, Michigan. - Interactive exhibit: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/ambulance/ - Ages: 2 to 6. The story is pitched at the youngest; the tap cards give older children more to chew on. - Cost: free, with no sign-in, no ads and no tracking. - Works on: phones, tablets and computers, in a web browser. Sound on for the narration. ## What it is Meet Amber, a kind paramedic. See her ambulance, help Jake after a tumble in the park, listen to a heartbeat and learn when to call 9-1-1. How to play: press play to hear the story (read aloud in Kelly's voice, with the words on screen). Slide the time slider back and forth to see any part again. Slide "Pull apart" to see what is hidden inside. Tap any glowing button for a fact. ## The story 1. Hello, poppets! This is Amber. She's a paramedic, and she helps people who are hurt or sick feel safe and better. 2. This is her ambulance. It's like a little hospital on wheels! 3. Inside there's a bed on wheels called a stretcher, and cupboards full of bandages. 4. Someone needs help! Lights on, siren on: make way! 5. Oh dear. Jake fell off his bike and hurt his knee. Amber kneels down, smiles, and listens. 6. She cleans his knee and puts on a bandage. You were very brave, Jake! 7. She listens to his heart with her stethoscope. Thump, thump! Put your hand on your chest: can you feel yours? 8. If someone is hurt, a grown-up can call 9-1-1 for help. Thank you, Amber! 9. Look, poppets: a paramedic's world on one table! The ambulance, Amber's stethoscope, a bandage roll and a bandage, and Jake with his bandage. ## The parts, and what we tell children These are the tap cards, word for word. - **Ambulance station**: An ambulance station is where paramedics wait, ready to help whenever someone calls. - **Paramedic**: A paramedic is a helper. Paramedics come in an ambulance to help people who are hurt or sick, and they are kind. - **Ambulance**: An ambulance is like a little hospital on wheels. It takes a paramedic to wherever help is needed. - **Lights and siren**: Flashing lights and a siren tell everyone an ambulance is coming. Cars move over to let it pass. - **Cab**: The driver sits up front in the cab. Everyone in an ambulance wears a seat belt. - **Back doors**: The back doors open wide, so the stretcher can roll in and out. - **Stretcher**: A stretcher is a bed on wheels. It helps people get to the ambulance gently and safely. - **Cupboards**: The cupboards inside an ambulance hold bandages and other helpful things, each in its place. - **First-aid bag**: A first-aid bag holds helpful things, like bandages. Paramedics carry it with them. - **Jake**: This is Jake. He fell off his bike and scraped his knee, and Amber helped him. He was very brave! - **Stethoscope**: A stethoscope helps a paramedic listen to your heart. Thump, thump! - **Heartbeat**: Your heart goes thump, thump, all day long. Put your hand on your chest, and feel it. - **Bandage**: A bandage is a soft cover. It keeps a scrape clean while it gets better. - **Bandage roll**: A roll of bandage wraps gently around a sore arm or leg. - **Telephone**: This is a telephone. If someone is badly hurt and a grown-up can't call, you can call 9-1-1. Press nine, one, one, and say where you are. It's only for real emergencies. - **Calling 9-1-1**: If someone is hurt, a grown-up can call 9-1-1. Say where you are, and a helper will come. ## Getting the science right What we checked, and the myths we steer around: - The page shows a calm, friendly helper only: no blood, no needles, no frightening emergency. Jake's scraped knee is a small painted scrape, and the story says only that he "hurt his knee" and gets a bandage. - The ambulance is a generic American box ambulance (comrade1280, CC BY, "Generic civil service vehicles pack"); the page shows only the word AMBULANCE and the blue Star of Life, no service name, no real logo, and the model's fleet number is removed. Its lights flash red and white gently, and its siren is a soft, brief recording of a North American emergency siren heard far off. - In the United States the number to call for an emergency is 9-1-1. The page says only that "a grown-up can call 9-1-1 for help" and "say where you are"; it never asks a young child to make the call alone. - A stethoscope lets a paramedic listen to the heart and lungs. A resting four-year-old's heart beats very roughly 80 to 120 times a minute; the page says only "thump, thump" and invites the child to feel their own chest. - Inside a real ambulance: a stretcher (a wheeled cot, also called a gurney), cupboards of supplies such as bandages, and a first-aid bag the paramedic carries to the patient. The stretcher, first-aid bag and stethoscope are real 3D models (CC BY, credited on the page); the bandage roll, the adhesive bandage and the cupboards and bench inside the ambulance are made in code. - Amber (about 1.68 m) and Jake (about 4 years old, 1.0 m) are painted for this exhibit with Grok (Kelly's own) and cut out of their plain ground; Amber's name tag, which Grok lettered wrongly, is painted out. The three backdrops (an ambulance station, an autumn park path and the inside of an ambulance) are Grok paintings by Kelly; the station's AMBULANCE sign was painted on afterward, the parked ambulance painted out, and the inside's yellow-green door edges recoloured to white, as on American ambulances. ## How to use it with children Watch the story with the sound on. At the park, ask: what would you do if a friend fell off a bike? At the heartbeat, put a hand on your chest together and count the thumps. Then pull the slider at the table to open the ambulance (the doors, the stretcher, the first-aid bag) and tap each piece. Ask more than you tell, and let the child drive. Then step away from the screen: feel your heartbeat, then jump ten times and feel it again. Put a bandage on a teddy and listen to its heart with a cardboard tube. Practice what to say if you ever need to call 9-1-1: your name, where you are, and what happened. If you can, visit a local fire station or ambulance base on an open day. A few minutes together is plenty. The exhibit is a doorway to the real thing, not a replacement for it. ## Credits and licenses The real scans, maps and photographs belong to their makers, under the licenses below. The words, story and code are Curiosity's Child's. - Ambulance: [comrade1280](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/generic-civil-service-vehicles-pack-8ff2a13f30914932a70c7950cfa58465) (CC BY), cut into its parts - Stretcher: [mAmmar2256](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/hospital-stretcher-trolley-edfeb93b201b4c8da2c7a4fb5dea090c) (CC BY) - First-aid bag: [ezgi bakim](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cartoon-the-paramedic-bag-1d113ffd208a4654983ff487974242ce) (CC BY) - Stethoscope: [Vera4Art](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/doctors-stethoscope-3bef1be839834f4f9ad7ff8731d90602) (CC BY) - Table and light: [Poly Haven](https://polyhaven.com) (CC0) - Amber, Jake and the backdrops painted with Grok Imagine (Kelly's own) - The bandage and its roll, the telephone, the inside of the ambulance and the lights made in code - Sounds from Freesound ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)): [mzui](https://freesound.org/s/135074/) (street birds), [ibirdfilm](https://freesound.org/s/128160/) (an engine hum), [kyles](https://freesound.org/s/635734/) (a distant siren), [mihnelis](https://freesound.org/s/868247/) (children in the park) - Music-box tune made for this page - Narrated by Kelly, in her own voice ## More on the Community Helpers shelf - [The Firefighter](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/firefighter/index.md): Meet Aaron, a kind firefighter. Put on his gear, ride the fire truck, rescue a kitten and learn stop, drop and roll. - [The Police Officer](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/police/index.md): Meet Officer Bruce, a kind police officer. See his police car, cross the road safely, help find a lost teddy and learn what to do if you are lost. - [The Garbage Truck](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/garbage-truck/index.md): Meet Brayden and his big garbage truck: watch him tip a can into the scoop at the back, a blade squeeze the trash small, then recycling and compost. - [The Farmer](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/farmer/index.md): Follow one little corn seed with Farmer June and her granddaughter Suhayla, from her hand in spring to a harvest meal, then take a little tractor apart. Thank you, farmer! - [The Mail Carrier](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/mail-carrier/index.md): Follow Barbara, the mail carrier, from the post office to your door: a birthday card across the ocean, a parcel, a doorbell. Then spread the mail out on the table! ## About Bag of Wonder A free library of interactive 3D "look inside" science exhibits, made at Curiosity's Child, a licensed home daycare in Troy, Michigan. Secular and science-based; welcoming to all. - All exhibits and how we make them: https://bagofwonder.com/llms.txt - For grown-ups and AI assistants: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/about/ - To cite: "The Ambulance", Bag of Wonder, Curiosity's Child (Troy, Michigan). https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/ambulance/