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Choice and Wellbeing Explorer

Run the Choice and Wellbeing Explorer MicroSim Fullscreen

You can embed this MicroSim in your own course website with this iframe:

<iframe src="./main.html" width="100%" height="489px" scrolling="no"></iframe>

About this MicroSim

Choice and Wellbeing Explorer is an interactive MicroSim for this health-education textbook.

Students explain how everyday personal choices affect mental and emotional wellbeing by adjusting sliders for common daily choices and observing a simple wellbeing meter respond.

Use the controls in the panel below the drawing to interact with the model, then talk through what changed and why. The MicroSim is width-responsive and can be embedded in any course page with the iframe shown above.

Bloom's Taxonomy level: Understand (L2) — explain, describe, interpret

Lesson Plan

Audience

This MicroSim is designed for Grade 3. For the K-3 bands the teacher typically drives the activity on a shared screen; older students can explore the MicroSim independently.

Learning Objective

Students explain how everyday personal choices affect mental and emotional wellbeing by adjusting sliders for common daily choices and observing a simple wellbeing meter respond.

This activity targets Bloom's Understand (L2) (explain, describe, interpret).

Suggested Use (about 10 minutes)

  1. Warm up (2 min). Ask students what they already know about the topic and let one volunteer describe what they see on the screen.
  2. Model it (3 min). Demonstrate the interaction once, thinking aloud so students hear the reasoning behind each choice.
  3. Guided practice (3 min). Invite students to try the interaction and to predict what will happen before they act.
  4. Discuss (2 min). Ask why the result came out the way it did, connecting the on-screen result back to the learning objective above.

Check for Understanding

Have each student (or pair) explain their result in one sentence, using the vocabulary from this chapter. Look for reasoning that matches the Understand-level objective rather than a lucky guess.

Specification

The full specification below was extracted from Chapter 7: Mental And Emotional Health.

Type: microsim
**sim-id:** choice-and-wellbeing-explorer<br/>
**Library:** p5.js<br/>
**Status:** Specified

Bloom Taxonomy: Understand (L2)
Bloom Taxonomy Verb: explain, describe, interpret

Learning objective: Students explain how everyday personal choices affect mental and emotional wellbeing by adjusting sliders for common daily choices and observing a simple wellbeing meter respond.

Canvas layout: Left side (350px) has four labeled sliders — Hours of Sleep (4-10), Time Being Active (0-60 min), Time Talking With Someone Caring (0-30 min), Quiet Screen-Free Time (0-30 min). Right side (250px) shows a semicircle "Wellbeing Meter" gauge with a needle moving from "Running on Empty" (red) to "Feeling Good" (green), plus a short explanation text box.

Interactive controls: Four draggable sliders; a "Reset to Example Day" button.

Default parameters: Sleep 7 hours, Active 20 min, Talking 10 min, Quiet time 10 min — meter starts in the middle "Okay" zone.

Data Visibility Requirements: As a student drags any slider up, the needle moves toward green and a one-sentence plain-language reason appears (e.g., "More sleep helps your brain rest and reset."). Dragging down moves the needle toward red with a matching reason. No single slider can max the meter alone, reinforcing that wellbeing comes from combined healthy choices.

Instructional Rationale: Understand-level objective, so the design favors direct manipulation with immediate, concrete feedback over any competitive or scored element.

Implementation notes: Use p5.js. Keep reasons short, reassuring, and non-judgmental.

References