Our Digestive System- pt. 1

Verse:
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
Proverbs 25:21


Book:
"What Happens to a Hamburger?" by Paul Showers


In class we...

• did a great job reviewing material we learned before spring break
• defined digestion to be the breakdown of food and conversion to energy
• identified two forms of breakdown: chemical and mechanical
• learned that saliva and digestive juices in the stomach help with the chemical breakdown of food
• learned that mechanical breakdown occurs when we chew food, when the esophagus squeezes the food down into the stomach, and when the stomach churns the food for hours
• better appreciated why our parents tell us to "chew your food well"
  
• in the stomach the food changes appearance and looks thick and soupy called chyme
  
• appreciated the fact that our epiglottis helps prevent food from going down our trachea
• reviewed that smooth muscles are involuntary muscles and are heavily involved in digestion
• we duplicated this part of the digestive process using a tightly sealed plastic bag, crackers, saliva, and vinegar and observed the changes in appearance of food 1) before breakdown, 2) after mechanical breakdown, 3) after chemical breakdown (Note to self: this experiment grossed out some students)
• we colored, cut, and pasted our paper stomachs on to our body
  

Vocabulary words:

• digestion
• saliva
• chemical breakdown
• mechanical breakdown
• epiglottis
• esophagus
• bolus
• chyme
• sphincter

Video:
We didn't watch any videos in class, but here are two that nicely reviews what we learned.
Stomach Digestion
Digestion