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Elbow or Hands?

Run the Elbow or Hands? MicroSim Fullscreen

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About this MicroSim

Elbow or Hands? is an interactive MicroSim for this health-education textbook.

Students distinguish helpful cough-covering behavior from unhelpful behavior by sorting illustrated scenario cards into two labeled bins, applying the Covering Coughs concept.

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: Analyze (L4) — distinguish, sort, compare

Lesson Plan

Audience

This MicroSim is designed for Kindergarten. 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 distinguish helpful cough-covering behavior from unhelpful behavior by sorting illustrated scenario cards into two labeled bins, applying the Covering Coughs concept.

This activity targets Bloom's Analyze (L4) (distinguish, sort, compare).

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 Analyze-level objective rather than a lucky guess.

Specification

The full specification below was extracted from Chapter 4: Staying Healthy Every Day.

Type: microsim
**sim-id:** elbow-or-hands<br/>
**Library:** p5.js<br/>
**Status:** Specified

Bloom Taxonomy: Analyze (L4)
Bloom Taxonomy Verb: distinguish, sort, compare

Learning objective: Students distinguish helpful cough-covering behavior from unhelpful behavior by sorting illustrated scenario cards into two labeled bins, applying the Covering Coughs concept.

Canvas layout:
- Top area (250px): One simple illustrated scenario card shown at a time, depicting a child about to cough or sneeze in different ways (into elbow, into a tissue, into open hands, into open air)
- Bottom area (200px): Two large labeled bins side by side: "Keeps Germs Away" (green, with a shield icon) and "Lets Germs Spread" (gray, with a germ icon)
- Bottom strip (50px): Score display ("You sorted 4 scenarios!") and a Reset button

Visual elements:
- 8 scenario cards cycling one at a time, evenly split between helpful and unhelpful cough/sneeze coverings, drawn in a simple, warm cartoon style
- Bins glow softly when a card is dragged over them

Interactive controls:
- Drag-and-drop: child drags the scenario card into the bin they believe matches
- Button: "Reset" to start over
- Button: "Next Scenario" appears after each placement

Default parameters:
- First scenario: a child coughing into their elbow (Keeps Germs Away)
- Scenarios appear in a fixed friendly order so a teacher can predict what is coming next

Behavior:
- When a card is placed in the correct bin, the bin glows green, a cheerful chime plays, and the score increases by one
- When a card is placed in the incorrect bin, the card gently slides back to the top and a friendly infobox reminds the child why, e.g., "Coughing into hands lets germs spread to the next thing you touch."
- After all 8 scenarios are sorted, show a celebration message: "You really know how to keep germs from spreading!"

Instructional Rationale: This is an Analyze-level objective because the child must examine a small scenario and distinguish which category it belongs to, rather than simply recalling a rule. The forgiving retry behavior with an explanatory infobox keeps the activity appropriate for a pre-reader audience while still requiring a real comparison judgment.

Implementation notes: Use p5.js. Represent each scenario as an object with an illustration reference, a correct category, and an explanation string. Keep all captions read-aloud length (one short sentence).

References