5th Grade Science

Explore

Digestive System
Digestive System

Part 1: The digestive system

🎯 Goal:

Explain how the organs in the digestive system help prepare nutrients to go to our cells.

Step 1: Observe a healthy and unhealthy digestive track (Done):

Look for clues about why she is sick by looking at the linked

illustrations⁠

Record what you notice on your sheet

⁠

https://interactives.bscs.org/3dmss/digestive.html?version=endoscope#screen2⁠

⁠

Step 2: Feel and see how food goes through the digestive system (with partner)

Take a photo of each step

Mouth: Break crackers and banana into big pieces in the cup using forceps (tweezers) as teeth.

Stomach: dump stomach acid (OJ) and chewed food into a ziplock. Seal and flex your stomach muscles (squeeze the bag gently) until food is a mash (called a chyme)

Into Intestines:

carefully cut a bottom corner of the ziplock bag while holding back the mashed food (chyme)

Over the body (metal pie pan) have your partner hold the cup end of the intestines up and the other end of the intestines closed

Staying over the body, carefully squeeze the mashed food (chyme) into the cup end of the intestine

Through the intestines: Keep holding the bottom of the intestines closed, while working together to squeeze the chyme through to the bottom of the intestines, trying to get as much nutrients out (what drips through the fabric) into the body (pie pan)

Waste out of the body: Once you’ve squeezed most of the liquid nutrients out of the food, squeeze the waste (now drier food mash) into the plastic container (toilet).

Clean:

dump food waste in compost

ziplock in trash

dirty cups, intestines in the large plastic waste tub

Rinse tray and plastic container, dry with clean rag and return to supply table.

Step 3: Model the length of the digestive system

Make a model of a human digestive system using a roll of paper. Use the measurements in the table below

Begin at the mouth. Measure the distance from the start to the end of the mouth. Mark the end of mouth and label this first section Mouth.

Continue to construct the model, beginning each new organ at the end of the last organ (mouth then esophagus, etc . . . Don’t cut your model!)

Add detail:

Draw or describe what is happening to food and / or water in each section

at least one fact about each organ in its section (see organ

info⁠

here):

https://www.dkfindout.com/us/human-body/digestion/⁠

⁠

Organ

Average Length (cm)

Measure this many centimeters:

Mouth

Esophagus

2.5

Stomach

Small intestine

690

Large intestine

152

Rectum

1.5

There are no rows in this table

914

Sum

⁠

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