Digestion – Breaking it down

This scene takes the form of a giant digestive system that students will take a journey through, where they explore how food is digested. Through the journey, they will observe the mechanical action of the mouth and stomach and the action of peristalsis to keep food moving along and through the specialist organs involved in digestion. Hear the breakdown of large molecules will be modelled as they breakdown to their smaller subunits before absorption.

# Learning objectives

1: Be able to describe the process of digestion{.info}

2: Outline the products of digestion from their large molecules{.info}

3: Be able to describe what happens to nutrients after digestion{.info}

# Mechanical Digestion{.objective .objective1}

In this section, the process of mechanical digestion will be described, and how the mouth and stomach are designed to churn food up as digestion begins. As students journey through the digestive system, they will observe the chewing action in the mouth and the churning action of the stomach, as large pieces of food are being broken down to smaller pieces as digestive juice also mix.

# Chemical Digestion{.objective .objective2}

In this section, the process of chemical digestion will be described. As digestive juices containing enzymes are released, students will observe large nutrients such as starch, protein and lipids, break down to their respective subunits, glucose, amino acids, and glycerol and fatty acids. As these molecules make their way through the digestive tract, each molecule can be seen being digested in a specific location as it passes a specific organ within the digestive system.

# Absorption of Nutrients and Water{.objective .objective3}

In this section, the outcome of digestion will be described. As the smaller, soluble molecules are produced after digestion, They will be absorbed over the gut wall, and transported into the bloodstream. As digestion occurs in a solution, the remaining water will also be absorbed further along the gut so that it is conserved.

# Teacher Resources

### Download Teacher Notes


[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/791744/files/Digestion%20-+Breaking+it+down+Teachers+Notes+Only.pdf?date=1675855375&size=835714&md5=62ded34ddb8e6ddb3c86c5c53275ca79)


### Student Quiz Answers Document

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/791745/files/Digestion%20-+Breaking+it+down+Quiz+Answers.pdf?date=1675855482&size=429912&md5=840f22c18a859e3dc4c327f7a995a8ff)

### Download Student Quiz Document

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/791746/files/Digestion%20-+Breaking+it+down+Quiz+Only.pdf?date=1675855577&size=95034&md5=e0d87d31bda1b280312fa5dcbc4b6dc1)