What Are You Learning Today?
Yesterday's audit proved you can read real data about sleep. Today we audit the thing eating your sleep. And because Quiz 1 is next class, today ends with a full review sprint. Nothing on the quiz was not taught and practised first.
The Hook Machine
By the end you can: name the 4-part design loop that keeps you scrolling — and point to it operating on you in real time. (Outcome 1: impact of technology use)
Quiz 1 Review Sprint
By the end you can: run the sleep-debt, social-jetlag and half-life math cold, and diagnose all 10 clinic cases. (Outcome 1: impact of sleep)
📐 Nova Scotia Curriculum • Outcome 1 — Health Behaviours
"Learners will evaluate health behaviours that promote short-term and long-term health." Indicators in play today: analyse the impact of sleep on youth health (CT, PCD) • analyse the impact of technology use on health and well-being (CT, TF, PCD) • reflect on the ways personal identity shapes health-related decisions (CZ, COM, PCD).
The Hook Loop: 4 Parts
I scroll a real feed on the projector. Every few scrolls, you call out which part is firing. This loop is the whole unit — it will be on Quiz 1.
The Bait / The Itch
A notification, red badge, or late-night boredom. The feed didn't appear by accident — something baited you in.
Infinite Scroll
One lazy thumb flick, zero effort, no stopping cues. The easier the swipe, the less your brain thinks.
The Slot Machine
9 boring clips, 1 gold hit. Your brain gambles on the next swipe — the same unpredictable schedule slot machines use.
Streaks & Algorithm
Likes, streaks, watch history. Every second trains the algorithm to hook you harder tomorrow — and makes quitting feel like losing.
The Man Who Built It Regrets It
"It's as if they're taking behavioural cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface. And that's the thing that keeps you coming back, back and back." — Aza Raskin, who invented infinite scroll in 2006 — BBC News, 2018. He also said "behind every screen on your phone there are literally a thousand engineers that have worked on this thing to try to make it maximally addicting."
Turn & talk, 60 seconds: He compares his invention to a knife — it can cut vegetables or stab someone. Which is your feed closer to?
You Are The Data Points
Average entertainment screen media per day for 13–18s (Common Sense Census — about 43% of waking hours).
Source: Common Sense Censusof US teens self-report 4+ hours of daily screen time.
Source: CDC survey, 2021–2023of Grade 9s here reported Period 1 brain fog (our Day 1 diagnostic). Now you know one thing eating the sleep that causes it.
Source: Room 8 Day 1 diagnosticConnect it back: Jenna's case file — in bed 9 hours, asleep 6, phone in hand. Which part of the Hook Loop ate those 3 hours?
Defend Your Screen
"The algorithm is built to beat your self-control — because your attention is the product."
Use the Hook Loop, Raskin's quote, and the numbers. If a thousand engineers optimize your feed, who is it optimized for?
People quit, set limits, use "do not disturb." If the hook were unbeatable, nobody could. Apps also give real value — that's why we open them.
📌 Evidence rule: every argument must cite your 3-Night Screen Log, Morgan's phone log, or a number from today. Feelings are claims, not evidence.
Sleep Math Race
Whiteboards or one sheet per team. 90 seconds per problem. Formulas are on the board — no formula, no point.
- Q1. Target 9.0h. You slept 6.5h on a school night. Daily loss? Weekly (×5) debt?
- Q2. Morgan sleeps 5.5h a night. Morgan's 5-day debt? (Yes — the 17.5h one.)
- Q3. Convert 45 minutes to decimal hours.
- Q4. Weekday: bed 10:30pm, wake 6:30am. Weekend: bed 1:00am, wake 10:00am. Find both midpoints, the shift, and the zone.
- Q5. Isaiah's rested reaction time is 0.28s. After four 6-hour nights it degrades +25%. New time?
- Q6 (bonus). Tyrell's energy drink: 160mg caffeine at 3:30pm. After one half-life (~5h), how much is still in his system at 8:30pm?
A2. 9.0 − 5.5 = 3.5h → ×5 = 17.5h
A3. 45 min = 0.75 hr
A4. Midpoints: 2:30am and 5:30am. Shift = +3.0h → red zone (>2.0h social jetlag)
A5. 0.28 × 1.25 = 0.35s
A6. 160 ÷ 2 = 80mg still active
Name That Case
I read the symptom. First team to hold up the case name + the concept scores.
- 1. "Sleeps 6h weeknights, 11h Saturday to 'catch up' — still exhausted."
- 2. "In bed 9 hours, asleep 6 — phone in hand until 1am."
- 3. "Gaming till 4am Fri/Sat; Monday feels like jetlag from another timezone."
- 4. "Varsity striker asks why growth and repair happen in deep sleep."
- 5. "5:45am bus — the early wake is the schedule's fault, not a choice."
- 6. "Two energy drinks after lunch; wired at midnight."
- 7. "Perfect routine, no screens after 9pm — still lies awake worrying."
- 8. "Closes the family restaurant till 11pm; sleep isn't fully their choice."
- 9. "Bed 9:45pm, up 6am, stable — their clock rarely shifts."
- 10. "Fine all week, then 4am bedtimes all weekend."
2. Jenna — time-in-bed ≠ time-asleep (doomscrolling)
3. Owen — social jetlag (+5.5h)
4. Isaiah — athletic recovery / HGH in deep sleep
5. Lily — structural constraint (bus route)
6. Tyrell — caffeine half-life / adenosine blockade
7. Grace — rumination & anxiety despite clean hygiene
8. Amara — non-discretionary labour (family job)
9. Priya — healthy baseline
10. Marcus — weekend freefall / circadian misalignment
Fix The Lie
Each statement has exactly one planted error. Correct it in one sentence.
- 1. "Morgan repaid the 17.5-hour debt with one 13-hour Saturday sleep-in — fully caught up."
- 2. "A sleep-midpoint shift of +3.5h is inside the healthy green zone."
- 3. "Caffeine gives you energy, that's why it keeps you awake."
- 4. "If you're in bed 9 hours, you slept 9 hours."
- 5. "Your feed is shown to you in chronological order."
- 6. "Scrolling your phone helps you fall asleep faster."
2. Green is under 1.0h; anything over 2.0h is red — a +3.5h shift is severe Monday-morning jetlag.
3. No — caffeine blocks adenosine, the chemical signalling sleepiness. It masks fatigue; it doesn't create energy.
4. Time-in-bed ≠ time-asleep (Jenna lost 3h to scrolling latency).
5. It's engagement-ranked — that's the variable reward engine.
6. It raises arousal and delays sleep — latency goes up (Jenna again).
Who Is Steering?
Write the last 3 videos or posts your feed showed you today (from memory is fine). For each one, mark it:
You searched it, followed the account, chose the topic. Your intent drove it.
It appeared because the loop predicted it would hold you. Your past attention drove it.
Then one honest sentence: what does your chosen-vs-fed ratio say about who is steering your attention? Hand it in — it's your reflection mark for today.
What's On Tomorrow's Quiz
15 items • 25 points • one full Morgan scenario. You've seen every single question type today.
Hook Loop order, variable reward, station concepts, caffeine, jetlag zones, Raskin.
3 planted errors — exactly like Round 3. One-sentence corrections.
His 24-hour audit: calculate the debt, find the flaw in the Saturday plan, name the loop stages.
Social jetlag midpoints + a reaction-time calculation. No formula, no point.
📌 The Study Sheet goes home today — one page, organized by exactly these four parts. If you can do the Study Sheet cold, you walk out with the 5%.