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Dr. Popplet: Health, Happiness and Well-being

Cool Popplet Ideas, Popplet, Popplets in Education, Public Popplets / By

A good education is not restricted to achieving competence in literacy, math, and science; there is another set of equally essential life skills related to health, happiness, and well-being that we need to learn and respect if we are to become shiny happy citizens of the world. Having a healthy body and a sound mind is about as good as it gets these days, and those who are fortunate enough to maintain both are surely some of the planet’s happiest people.

Like other good things, there’s a great deal of common sense involved in healthy living. Lessons about diet, exercise and taking care of body and mind, are as essential as learning to read and write. Popplet itself is no stranger to the doctor’s surgery: when Popplet was very young, it had no conception of how just how popular it would become. This caused some “health” problems such as overstretched servers, sign-in issues, and general stress. Now, we’re happy to report that Popplet is following doctor’s orders, and is in pretty good shape.

We are glad to report that the Popplet community is also healthy and doing well! We frequently see popplets about how to keep up health, happiness, and well-being, and what happens if you don’t. Popplet is used in schools, colleges and by and medical professionals all over the world. Here is a small sample of some of their work.

A Healthy Diet: “You are what you eat.”
Few would argue the obvious truth that your body is made up of what you put into it. So, it follows that if you eat well, you can expect to have a healthy body. But what exactly is “healthy-eating”? It can get a bit confusing these days especially with the dense jungle of “special dietary requirements”, most of which are relatively new. It’s best to keep things nice and simple, like graduate teacher Miss Zoe Strutt did when her students created this Healthy Eating Plate:

All of the food groups necessary for a balanced healthy diet in their recommended proportions. Attractive images, essential information, and color-coding give a simple lesson in how to eat well.

The pupils of All Saints Primary, Wales, brainstormed Healthy and Unhealthy foods and recorded their results on a popplet, using green for healthy and red for unhealthy. With chocolate, fizzy drinks (pop) and candies (sweeties) all falling into the red zone, one can’t help but feel their disappointment with the results.

The last word on food goes to Mr. Owen’s class, who learned about food and drinks by sorting them on Popplet:

 

A Healthy Mind: “Be water, my friend.”
A healthy body is important, but that body can’t serve a person well unless it has a healthy mind attached to it. More than any other time in the history of the human race, are the strains and stresses of everyday global living impacting on our mental well-being. The positive thing that is we know it, and many people now actively engage in activities that help keep their brains in good shape and their bodies and minds in balance.

It’s not all theory; the links between education and neuroscience and the benefits of applying this knowledge are becoming better understood leading to changes in teaching practices. Madrid journalist, Masters in Education student, Reyesinnova recently shared her Popplet about Educational Neuroscience which outlines the mind’s requirements for healthy development:

Also, we really enjoyed this popplet from Asena’s student blog. It was created as part of a word activity exercise where students were asked to find synonyms for the word “leisure”. A closer inspection reveals many of the elements a mind needs to stay healthy:

Dental Hygiene: Taking Care Of Your Teeth
Dentists have a hard time of it, but let’s be honest: if you have had the luxury of living in a developed country, the fear and loathing a dentist’s visit can create, is probably uncalled for. Sure, they cause us fear, and pain in our mouths as well as our wallets, but they did warn us! And they are still warning us because the internalization of good dental hygiene habits when you’re young, will save you a lot of pain, money and negative emotions later in life. We see a lot of popplets related to dental health on Popplet, like this clear, clinical and instructional one from Caries en Estudiantes (Cavities in Students), created by Prevención de Caries:

Best pay attention now and save yourself a lot of problems later!

The Full Benefits Of Regular Exercise
We are no longer cave dwellers chasing our food. Neither do so many of us engage in manual labor as we used to. Children these days also, often prefer the lure of the computer screen than the football park. So, regular exercise is more than simply a good idea, it’s an essential element to a long and happy life. Of course, most people already know this, and gyms and sports clubs are practically ubiquitous. Physical Education Teacher, Cheri Potter understands the link between exercise and healthy living better than most. She recently shared her work and knowledge of exercise using various mind-mapping tools:

Understanding Illness
Of course, not all diseases or ailments are a consequence of poor choices. As well as significant socioeconomic factors, many people simply get sick or are born sick. Improving the quality life for those who suffer from illness is a priority for medical scientists. Quite often, investigators and students use popplet to record and present their findings. Here we have two excellent examples:

Hipoacusia (Hearing Loss)

We came across this in Public Popplets. A lot of medical students and doctors share their work openly on Popplet’s open forum:

Diabetes

The following popplet was shared by Diabetes Enfermedad Silenciosa (Diabetes The Silent Illness)

Getting Older: What Happens To Our Bodies
Who wants to live forever? Well, it’s not going to happen. Medical science has yet to find a way to meet this need. So no matter what, unless you are like Highlander, Connor MacLeod, then you will age and eventually, your body and mind will succumb. Barring accidents, the velocity of this process is normally directly proportional to how you choose to treat yourself while you’re alive – everybody knows that, don’t they? Well, Year 1, of Stephen Perse PrePrep certainly know about some of the changes that occur on the journey from the cradle to the grave, and they shared them with us. It’s not all bad, honest!

This type of learning never stops, and fortunately for most of us, it’s never too late to show an interest in one’s health. There are all sorts of small changes you can make that will have a huge positive impact on mind and body: Walking, running, meditation, yoga, regular health check-ups and being more careful about what goes into your basket at the supermarket! Even making new friends can make you feel a lot better. Go on, do it today, you can even begin by making a popplet about your plans – just be sure to do a bit more!

What do you recommend for a healthy happy life? Are you teaching it to others? Whatever you’re doing, put it on a Popplet and share your ideas with the Popplet community on our Twitter, and our Facebook Page. To browse Public Popplets, where you will find an almost infinite amount of Popplet creativity, open a free Popplet account on the Popplet homepage. We will even give you 10 free Popplet boards to get started.