Big 3 Macronutrients

Dispelling Myths and giving streamlined information regarding Carbs, Proteins, and Fats.

Updated: Nov 13, 2025
Authors: Roman Hudson

Brief Project Intro. I will be creating three maybe four, pages of a H5P that outlines carbs, protein, and fats. The booklet will provide an interactive outline of their history, use in the body, different types, and how it’s important to have them working together.

THE PROCESS

Understand (Discover, Interpret, Specify)

DESCRIBE THE CHALLENGE:

• Many people struggle to understand what macronutrients are and how they affect the body. They often hear mixed messages about protein, carbohydrates, and fats, which leads to confusion and poor food choices. Learners need a clear, trustworthy, and engaging resource that explains what each macronutrient does, where it comes from, and how it contributes to overall health and energy.

CONTEXT AND AUDIENCE:

Audience

• This OER is designed for people who want to better understand basic nutrition. It includes students in health and physical education courses, gym-goers, and anyone trying to make healthier eating choices. Most learners will have heard of carbs, fats, and protein but may not know their specific functions or how to identify good sources of each.
  

Needs

• Learners need simple explanations of what macronutrients are and how they work together to support human health. They need examples of foods that contain each nutrient and a clear breakdown of calories per gram. They also need to understand the differences within each group, such as simple versus complex carbohydrates, saturated versus unsaturated fats, and complete versus incomplete proteins. Visuals and short explanations help make these concepts easier to remember.

Goals

• Build a clear understanding of how proteins, carbohydrates, and fats fuel the body and support health.
• Help learners identify common food sources of each macronutrient.
• Explain calorie values and how energy balance works.
• Clarify misconceptions and myths about “good” and “bad” foods.
• Show how macronutrient use and importance have evolved across human history and culture.
• Encourage balanced, informed eating habits that connect science to everyday choices.

Motivation

• Learners want to eat better, feel healthier, or perform better in sports and fitness.
• Many are frustrated by conflicting nutrition advice online and want reliable, science-based guidance.
• They are curious about how food fuels the body and affects daily energy and performance.
• They value interactive and visual learning that makes nutrition easier to understand.
• They want to feel confident about making their own informed food choices without judgment or confusion.

POV STATEMENT:

A learner who feels confused by conflicting nutrition advice needs a clear, interactive overview of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats so that they can understand how each supports the body, make balanced food choices, and feel confident in their knowledge of nutrition.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1. Learners will be able to identify and describe the three main macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) and explain their primary functions in supporting human health and energy.
2. Learners will be able to differentiate between types of macronutrients such as simple and complex carbohydrates, saturated and unsaturated fats, and complete and incomplete proteins, and explain how each impacts the body.
3. Given examples of everyday foods, learners could categorize them by dominant macronutrients.

Plan (Ideate, Sketch, Elaborate)

IDEATION:

When I began thinking about this project, I thought about how when I started losing weight and thinking about what I eat, I had a lot of preconceived notions when it came to macronutrients. For example, I knew that protein was the cornerstone to muscle retention when losing weight, so all I ate was meat. However, when I felt like I was losing weight to fast I looked into it, and I realized that it is important to still eat carbs before and after workouts to make sure your muscles can recover instead of just deteriorating. There is a lot of confusion online about which foods are “good” or “bad,” and people often rely on trends or restrictive diets, simularly to me, without knowing the basic science behind them. I wanted to create something that simplifies this topic and helps learners see how proteins, carbohydrates, and fats actually work in the body. My goal was to make the information both educational and engaging, using visuals and interactive elements that keep learners interested while they build real nutritional understanding.

To shape these ideas, I looked at a variety of online nutrition resources, including educational videos, podcasts, and some food “guides”. I noticed that many sources presented information in long text-heavy formats, which can make it hard to stay focused or they rely on sensational claims putting down a food group in favour of another. The most effective ones used visuals like charts, food examples, and short quizzes to keep the learner active. I also explored interactive OERs that use H5P to see what types of activities work best for explaining concepts clearly. This helped me plan how to mix short bits of information with interactive moments that check understanding, like matching foods to their main macronutrient or sorting types of fats. I’ve never used H5P before but when I saw a few demos, it matched what I wanted to do 1:1 and so I am hoping that while I make my artifact, I don’t run into any major challenges.

After comparing a few different directions, I decided that organizing the OER around the three main macronutrients made the most sense. Each section will introduce a nutrient through a short explanation, connect it to its historical and cultural context, and then show real-world examples of foods. The final section will use a quiz to bring everything together and let learners apply what they have learned. I thought this structure would make the topic approachable for a general audience while still grounded in accurate science. It gives learners a complete picture of what macronutrients are, where they come from, and how to make better food choices without feeling overwhelmed by too much information at once, through being able to choose what they open and the path they take.

PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE:

I have not made a proper prototype, as I need a subscription, so I want to get feedback first so I can make use of the free trial. So instead for a visual I want to do something simular to the straberry demo they have ‘https://h5p.org/content-types/interactive-book#h5pbookid=441940&chapter=h5p-interactive-book-chapter-a12f6a97-5f2e-4f1b-a804-4c49f38ab1f5&section=0‘ but instead its photo of carbs wheat, rice, pasta with 3 facts about the history or common myths, then go into a more scientific stuff in drop down taps, and then go into some studies and finally a mini quiz section and in the book I would have 3 sections for each protien, carb, fat and then a last one for how they work together.

This is an example of the photo and the possible drop down tabs I want to inculde for the different sections I outlined.

ARTIFACT: (Please click and go to actual website to see multiple pages and use the full book some resources are not showing up through the word press version)

PRINCIPLES APPLIED:

Modality Principle

The modality principle suggests that people learn better when information is presented through both visuals and spoken words rather than through text alone (Oberfoell & Correia, 2016). In my artifact the main form of instruction comes from a combination of narration and supportive visuals rather than large text blocks. Each macronutrient section includes short explanations that align with corresponding images, diagrams, or animations showing food examples and biological functions. This pairing of auditory explanation and visual representation allows learners to focus on the concept without having to read long passages, reducing split attention and improving understanding.

Dual Coding Theory

Dual coding theory highlights how learners retain information more effectively when content is processed both verbally and visually (Paivio & Clark, 2006). Each section my H5P combines interactive written explanations with visual cues that reinforce the message. When describing how carbohydrates provide quick energy, for example there is a picture of different carbs while there are tabs one can choose to display information about them. In the protein section, icons of different foods such as beans, eggs, and meat appear beside short text labels and then after you learn about these different food you can learn about the amino acids. These paired elements help learners connect the verbal and visual information into a single, more memorable concept. Encoding the material through two channels increases the likelihood that learners can recall it later when making real-life food choices.

Reducing Extraneous Load

Extraneous load refers to the unnecessary or confusing information that distracts from learning (Taylor et al., 2022). To minimize this, meaning my design stays clean and minimal, with consistent colors, clear icons, and concise explanations. Each screen focuses on one main concept at a time, and transitions are smooth so learners dont feel rushed. There is no background music or unnecessary motion. Text is short and straightforward, and visuals are directly related to the narration. Each interactive activity, such as identifying nutrition facts, is clearly explained. This approach keeps learners attention on the essential information while reducing distractions that could overload working memory.

References (references for the artifact are in the artifact)

Brom, C., Hannemann, T., Stárková, T., Bromová, E., & Děchtěrenko, F. (2017). The role of cultural background in the personalization principle: Five experiments with Czech learners. Computers & Education, 112, 37–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.01.001

Oberfoell, A., & Correia, A. (2016). Understanding the role of the modality principle in multimedia learning environments. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 32(6), 607–617. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12158

Paivio, A., & Clark, J. M. (2006). Dual coding theory and education. In S. J. Samuels & A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), Pathways to literacy achievement for high-poverty children (pp. 149–210). International Reading Association.

Taylor, T. A. H., Kamel-ElSayed, S., Grogan, J. F., Hajj Hussein, I., Lerchenfeldt, S., & Mohiyeddini, C. (2022). Teaching in uncertain times: Expanding the scope of extraneous cognitive load in the cognitive load theory. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 665835. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.665835

PEER FEEDBACK:

Taha’s feedback pushed me to raise the floor on interactivity and surface polish. He liked the topic fit and the interactive book format, but he called out spelling errors, mixed fonts and colours, and the outdated “Updated” tag. The main design note was to add real active elements so learners are not just reading. He suggested sorting foods, matching macronutrients to functions, and quick checks to confirm understanding. He also said the way I explained things felt clear and confident, which gave me permission to keep the direct, friendly tone while tightening the build.

Bashar’s comments lined up with that. He flagged the same surface issues and the confusing colour hierarchy across equal headings. He appreciated the demo link because it grounded the concept and made the plan feel real. His overall message was to proofread in Google Docs first, lock a simple style guide, and keep the structure predictable so learners know what to do on every page. Taken together, the feedback was consistent and actionable. Clean up the presentation, commit to true interaction, and keep the visual language stable across the whole book.

Reflect and Refine

REFLECTION:

What worked well was the alignment between the learner’s problem and the format. People are overwhelmed by mixed nutrition messages. The interactive book lets me present one idea per screen, text with a purposeful visual, and then ask the learner to do something with it. That flow fits how I like to learn and it matches the cognitive load basics I used in the video project. The carbs, protein, and fats sections each have a clean entry, a short build, and a quick check so learners do not get lost.

Based on the feedback, I made two types of changes. First, I fixed the surface layer in my WordPress site. I made sure to revisit my post and correct the spelling mistakes, make sure headers or the same format, and update the page date. Second, for me artifact, I added real interactivity to every section. I had dragged the word activities for key terms, drop-down menus for different information, true or false final checks, and interactive photos for information regarding different types of protein, carbs and fats. I also tried to keep the formatting consistent; the activities do change; however, there is usually an interactive photo, then information, then a quiz, then someone interactive activity, then another quiz, then some YouTube videos for more information.

I revised the content flow to support signalling and pacing. Each page has a single purpose (to educate about either a carb, protein, or fat) with clear instructions. Headings carry useful vocabulary instead of repeating the same sentence. There are chapter markers on the side so learners can control speed and sequence. I kept images lightweight and focused on the concept rather than decoration. In the final section, I added a small que card section where learning can have extra practice with the information before trying the knowledge test task. The biggest challenge was deciding what to leave out. There is endless nuance in nutrition, and it is easy to bury beginners in details. I used the “one job per screen” rule and kept every activity short. If something did not serve the learning goal, I cut it. I also resisted stacking widgets on a single page. Fewer clicks with a clearer purpose felt better in testing. If I were to take it to the next level, I would want to add more visual activities. This could look like auditory explanations of the text elements and include a visual presentation of the information to give the learners more ways to explore and find their own path to the answer.