Create Healthy Plates

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What is the objective of the game?

The game Create Healthy Plates consists of designing and illustrating balanced food compositions on an interactive digital canvas. The core mechanic relies on selecting a base canvas (an empty plate, one with a fried egg, or one with a fish) and dragging the different available foods from around the screen to complete the recipe. The objective of the game is to apply real nutritional criteria to structure healthy meals and color the options, allowing players to visually and intuitively distribute the ideal proportion of each nutrient group.

Recommended age and educational level

This activity is recommended for children ages 6 and up, fitting perfectly into Elementary School levels (science and healthy lifestyle habits) and as a cross-curricular reinforcement tool in Middle School to understand macronutrients. Its intuitive design allows students to use it independently, but it is especially valuable for teachers, parents, and nutritionists looking to introduce food education. As the only prerequisite, it is recommended that children have a basic knowledge of the main food groups (fruits, vegetables, proteins, and carbohydrates) to classify them correctly.

How to play: single-player or multiplayer

The gameplay mode is strictly single-player in its technical execution. However, it lends itself excellently to a collaborative approach and classroom debate: students can work in pairs to agree on the ingredients for a balanced menu, or present their finished plates to the rest of the class to defend why their combination is considered healthy and meets established nutritional guidelines.

What is learned with this game? Learning and skills

Through this visual simulation, core contents of Health Sciences and Nutrition are reinforced, promoting the development of specific skills:

• Nutritional education and good habits: Empirical understanding of a healthy plate structure (50% vegetables and fruits, 25% complex carbohydrates, and 25% lean proteins), while also recognizing the role of healthy fats in moderation.
• Classification and categorization: Identification and accurate placement of foods according to their type (meat, fish, rice, greens, vegetables).
• Fine motor skills and spatial organization: Utilizing drag-and-drop mechanics to arrange elements on the plate in an orderly and aesthetic manner.

Tips to make the most of this game

To maximize the educational potential of this game, we suggest setting specific challenges for students, such as the "Harvard Plate" challenge (half vegetables, a quarter protein, and a quarter carbohydrates). As an unplugged extension activity, children can be asked to write down the ingredients of their interactive plate on a worksheet to calculate the estimated total calories of the meal or conduct a brief research project at home to estimate the cost price of the food items used. This connects the game directly with applied math, home economics, and daily real-world scenarios.