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Breaking It Down
Learning how the body breaks down and digests food.
Kat Hohenberger
Overview: Students will learn about the digestive system. They will look at how the
body breaks down food and uses it as energy.
Background:
The digestive system is important
for children to learn about because
it is a part of their bodies. Children
should know how the body works
and it can give them a better sense
of who they are and how they work.
Knowing these things will set the
foundation for more in depth
teachings about the digestive system
in the future. It can also spark
curiosity in the child, and they may
find they really enjoy this subject.
To entice them I will be performing
the Digestion in a Bag activity.
To perform my experiment each
child will need, zip-lock bags, two
to three crackers and a small
amount of soda. The children would
proceed to put the crackers in the
bag. Once they are in the bag and
the bag is zipped, the children
would crush the crackers. This
represents the breaking down of
food in the body. Once the crackers
are squished, you can pour the small
amount of soda into the bag. After a
few minutes with soda in the bad
the kids can feel the cracker and
soda and mix it around. The soda
represents the acid in the stomach,
and shows that it breaks the food
down even further. (Hickland)
My concepts for this presentation
are: Where food goes after you eat
it, breaking down food, and turning
food into nutrients. Through these
objectives I should cover how the
digestive system works, in a way
that a teacher knows how to plan a
lesson off of it, but also in a way
kids will be able to learn. By the
end of this essay I hope I gain more
knowledge on this subject, and hope
that someone who doesn’t know
much about the digestive system
will walk away ready to teach a
class about it.
Some things the kids may not think
about is where their food goes after
they eat it. First, the food enters the
body, you chew it in to small pieces
so that it is small enough to make its
way down the esophagus, in to the
stomach. The stomach produces
chemicals that help break the food
down even further, which I will go
in to further detail about later. Once
it has went through the stomach it
goes through a tube called the small
intestine. The small intestine is
approximately about twenty feet
long (WebMD). While the food is in
the small intestine it continues to
break down the food, in to liquid.
That liquid is then absorbed in to
the small intestine walls, into the
blood stream, and the blood stream
carries the liquid all throughout the
body to feed your cells (Hill). After
this whole process the undigested
food left over is then discarded as
waste.
Going back to the breaking
down of food, this is what I will be
focusing on next. Kids are told that
once food enters the stomach it is
broken down, but is never really
explained how this process happens.
First off, the first stage of the
breaking down of food happens
when the food is chewed up using
teeth. After the food is swallowed
the food that was chewed enters the
stomach for the second stage of
breaking down of food. In the
stomach you will find stomach acid,
also known as gastric juice
(McGuigan). Brendan McGuigan
accurately describes how this acid
helps break down food. “This acid
helps break down food by
dissolving some of the bonds in
protein molecules, then activates
enzymes that further separate these
compounds, allowing them to be
used by the body” (McGuigan).
Carbohydrates, fats and nutrients
are not broken down in the stomach,
but in the intestines. Which is the
next stage, the small intestines
absorb more nutrients and water
then they break down the food, but
when you get to the large intestines
this is where the rest of the fluid is
Age/Grade level:
3rd -4th grade
Skills:
Observing, inferring,
experimenting, understanding cause
and effect relationships, formulating
models.
Objectives:
At the completion of this activity,
students will be able to make
observations, communicate results,
and experiment by replicating the
process of the digestive system
using crackers and soda. Students
will have a deeper understanding
how food is digested in the body.
Materials:
Crackers- 2 per student
Dixie cup of Soda- 1 per student
Ziploc bag- 2 per student
Time considerations:
Preparation Time:
10-15 minutes
Activity time:
10 minutes
References:
Hickland, Karen. Body Systems:
Digestive System: Digestion in a
Bag. 01 June 2011. 13 October
2014. <http://sciencemattersblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/
body-systems-digestive-systemdigestion.html?m=0>.
Hill, Karen. Where Does Food Go
After You Eat It? 07 October 2007.
14 October 2014.
<http://superbeefy.com/where-doesfood-go-after-you-eat-it/>.
Jeffries, Melissa. How the Digestive
System Works. May 2011. 15
October 2014.
<http://health.howstuffworks.com/h
umanbody/systems/digestive/digestivesystem2.htm>.
McGuigan, Brendan. How Does
Stomach Acid Break Down Food?
Ed. Phil Riddel and Bronwyn
Harris. 06 October 2014. Conjecture
Corporation. 15 October 2014.
<http://www.wisegeek.org/howdoes-stomach-acid-break-downfood.htm>.
Rosmanitz, Klaus. Nutrition; How
the Body Uses Food. n.d. 15
October 2014. <http://www.englishonline.at/health_medicine/nutrition/
nutrition-how-the-body-usesfood.htm>.
WebMD. WebMD. 2009. 14 October
2014.
<http://www.webmd.com/digestivedisorders/picture-of-the-intestines>.
absorbed, and the rest is waste, ready
to get out of your body (Jeffries).
My last topic I will be
covering is how food is turned into
nutrients. There are six core groups
of nutrients; protein, carbohydrates,
fats, minerals, vitamins and water.
Water helps break down food and it
is vital that we drink enough water
every day. Water can even be found
in fruits, vegetables and other food.
Water does not give us energy unlike
carbohydrates, which is a main
source of energy. Both starches and
sugars have carbohydrates. Some
sugary foods that contain that kind of
energy are honey, jelly and dairy
products. Some starches are found in
beans, bread, potatoes, and pasta.
Fats come from Animals and plants.
This could include meat, butter, and
cheese. Other types of fats can be
found in seed, nuts and vegetable oil.
Proteins are very important for our
body. Protein helps build our
muscles’, skin and hair. The body can
produce its own protein, but it isn’t
enough, so it is essential to get
enough protein. Some foods that
contain protein is nuts, eggs, fish,
meat, milk and beans. Minerals are
vital for growth. They are inorganic
so, they are not made up of living
things. One mineral is iron which you
can get from certain foods. Other
minerals are Fluorine and Zinc.
People need vitamins to stay healthy.
Rosmanitz lists some important types
of vitamins in the following quote:
“Vitamin A, for example, helps skin
and hair grow. Vitamin C is needed
to fight off infections. Vitamin D
helps the growth of bones and teeth”
(Rosmanitz). All these things that are
apart of nutrients are found in food,
which is broken down through the
digestive system and spread through
our bodies to help us grow.
In conclusion, you should
have a better sense of how the
digestive system works and what kind
of things the body pulls from the
food. It is important for children to
know what is happening in their
bodies. It is also important for kids to
understand how the digestive system
works and how it helps us grow and
develop
Preparation:
Collect the required materials.
(listed blow)
Materials :
Saltine crackers
Dixie cup
Soda
Ziploc baggies
At each students desk you will need
to set out these materials: one cup
with soda, two saltine crackers and
two Ziploc baggies (one bag inside
the other).
Procedure:
Pre-Activity QuestionsWhere does food go after you eat it?
What is the digestive System?
How is food turned into Nutrients?
Activity:
1.Discuss the information about the
digestive system that in the
background material. Start off with
asking the pre-activity questions.
2.Beggining the experiment, ask
students to place the crackers into
the bag.
What does this represent?
This represents the bag as a mouth
and the crackers as food going into
your mouth.
3. Next ask kids to seal their Ziploc
bag and begin to crush the crackers
with their hands.
What does this represent?
The crushing of the crackers
represents how your teeth break
down the food, which is the first
step of digestion.
4. Now it is time for the soda to be
added into their Ziploc bag. After
the soda is in the bag tell them to
reseal it. Tell them to pay attention
to what the cracker is doing.
What does the soda represent?
How did the cracker respond to
the soda?
5. In conclusion, Have your students
contine to break up the cracker with
their hands.
What does breaking up the
cracker even further represent?
What is the next step in this
journey for the food?
Assessment:
Have the children dicuss the
diferent parts of the digestive
system by asking some of the
following questions:
Why is it important to eat healthy
foods?
Why is digestion important?
How does the digestion system
effect our lives?
Have each student fill out a coloring
worksheet and fill out four main
parts of the digestive system.
Have the students color and label
the following:
Mouth-Yellow
Stomach- Red
Small intestine- Blue
Large intestine- Green