Deficiency Detective Discussion (Vitamins and Minerals)

Purpose: Why are you doing this?

This activity aims to help you strengthen your critical thinking, scientific reasoning, and application skills by investigating a real-world nutrient deficiency case using an interactive AI tool. Youll practice:

• Recognizing signs and symptoms of common micronutrient deficiencies
• Asking targeted, logical questions to guide diagnosis
• Interpreting bioavailability and dietary clues
• Proposing realistic, evidence-based solutions for recovery and prevention

Task: What do you need to do?

The following steps identify the process of generating and solving your case study.

Step 1 Open the chat bot and generate your case study.

(If you prefer not use AI, please use thefor this discussion)

Access the GPT chatbot

Request that a case be presented based on the field you are studying at Valencia. On the main page, you will click on one of the boxes or type Give me a case, as if I (fill in the job you want to do when you finish your degree).

The bot will provide you with a case study of a person who exhibits a vitamin or mineral deficiency. Your job is to ask the AI bot questions to determine which vitamin or mineral deficiency this case exhibits. You will type questions into the text prompt.

Step 2: Ask the chat bot questions until you identify the nutrient deficiency.

Work through the case by typing in your own questions to uncover:

• Symptoms (Example: Is tingling in this persons feet related to their nutrient deficiency?)
• Eating patterns and food sources (Example: How often does the individual eat meat?)
• Nutrient interactions and absorption issues (Example: what does an antacid do to cause a nutrient deficiency?)
• Once you have the deficiency figured out, ask the AI bot if you identified the correct nutrient (example: Is it a thiamin deficiency?). If you are wrong, keep asking questions until you get it right. If you are correct, then you may proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Obtain a link of your chat bot conversation.

Click on the Share button in the upper right corner. Then, click the create link button.

Click the copy link button and then paste it into the Discussion. You will paste this into your post.

Step 4 Submit your initial post.

In a reply to this discussion thread, paste the chat bot link of your discussion (see step 3). Then, answer the following questions:

• What is your nutrient deficiency?
• Why do you believe this nutrient is the correct one? What specific evidence led you here?
• What diet changes would you suggest for the peers’ case study person to correct the nutrient deficiency.
• What part of this case challenged you the most? What did you learn about your own thought process during this activity?

Step 5 Reply to TWO Peers

On a different day than your initial post, review two peers’ posts. Click their chat bot link and read through their conversation. In your reply, answer these questions:

• What questions were missing? i.e. what alternative questions may have helped your peer to isolate the deficiency?
• Discuss the diet changes that your peer suggested in their post. Are the recommendations realistic? Discuss how variables like culture, budget, or food access might affect the person’s ability to make those food changes.

Limited use of AI

Students are allowed to use AI for the purposes outlined in the directions. However, students are required to provide a link to the AI conversation in their discussion post. No other uses of AI are allowed, including answers to the discussion questions. All answers within the posts must be the thoughts, words, and research of the individual students.