Overview

Some lessons can only be learned by experience.  These trial-and-error lessons, however, can be expensive...and sometimes painful!  Fortunately, computers can be programmed to provide the opportunity to learn from simulated experience without having to deal with some of the disadvantages of experiential learning.

There are three different activities for this particular lesson. Activity one demonstrates the impact of different lifestyle choices. Lesson two shows what foods are healthier than others. While lesson three lets you play doctor and diagnose different diseases.

Activities

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1) Inheritance - In this lesson you will be given the opportunity to engage in a simulation designed to give you practice in making lifestyle decisions affecting your health and well-being.

The activity developed for this lesson, "The Inheritance", is not a perfect imitation of life; it has its limitations.  These limitations are usually seen in some of the "rules" of  the game.  For example, there is an opportunity in this simulation to "get married", however you may not do so until you have a job!  Naturally, this is not true in life.  Unemployed people get married all the time in real life.  But for the sake of simplicity, the author has included this non-true-to-life rule.  While it is impossible to build a simulation that imitates life perfectly, research has demonstrated the ability of simulated experiences to significantly improve student performance.

2) Diet - Pick what foods are unhealthy

3) Diagnosis - Play doctor and diagnose patients that have diseases related to lifestyle choices. There are five cases and if you need help here are the diseases to choose from: diabetes (non-insulin dependent, type II diabetes), coronary artery disease, hepatitis, pancreatitis, hypoparathyroidism.

 

Answers and explanations are in the teachers pages.

Good luck!