Little
Dragon’s
Digestive
System Show
Sam the dragon has a bellyache, but why? Find out why in
this highly interactive and hands-on 60-minute program that
demonstrates the components of the digestive
system and how each part functions.
DiscussionSam, the LSC dragon, loves to eat sweets. But this time he’s eaten too many and has a belly ache. Sam will guide you through a journey into and through the digestive system, as we explore the names and functions of its basic components.
Discovery Time
After we’ve explained Sam’s eating habits and why his belly was hurting, we open the stage for questions from the
audience. Kids this age have lots of questions regarding the digestion system and their bodies.
Journey into the Digestive System
SELECTED VOLUNTEERS from each class will have the opportunity to go through our “funtastic” digestive system obstacle course: climb up the
tongue, slide down the esophagus, get churned up by gastric juices in the stomach and then crawl through the small and large intestines.
Little Dragon’s Digestive System Show
Program Information
NJ Standards:
2009 NJCCCS:
5.1. P.B.2: Generate Scientific Evidence through Active Investigations 5.3.4. A.3: Organization and Development
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the program students will be able to
Identify the parts of the digestive system. Describe the basic functions of the components. Verbally express good and poor food choices
Program Overview:
Using a puppet early learners review good and poor food choices as well as learning the parts and functionsof the human digestive
Special Instructions:
Thank you for reserving …
Little Dragon’s Digestive System
There are just a few things we will need:
1. Parking:
Safe, legal parking with easy access to our vehicle must be provided.
2. Space:
If booked as an assembly, our program requires large indoor space such as an auditorium or gymnasium clear of obstacles.
Please be advised that this space must be available to us 45 minutes prior to the scheduled start time for set-up and 30 minutes following the conclusion for breakdown.
(For safety reasons, we cannot have students in the area while we are engaged in the set-up or breakdown of programs.)
3. Equipment
We bring everything, EXCEPT...
Two tables provided by you (minimum size 2ft. wide x 6ft. long) (Please have the tables set up prior to our arrival so we may begin our set-up promptly.) We will need access to 2 normal (grounded) 110-volt electrical outlets. (Please be sure outlets in the performance area are working and unobstructed.)
4. Restrictions
The audience size is limited to a maximum of 300.
5. Directions
If you know that the online driving directions to your location are inaccurate, please see the next page.
Please contact 201.253.1310 if any of these outlined criteria present an issue.
Our Traveling Science Educators normally use MapQuest for directions. Most times the directions are accurate. However:
If directions from online services to your venue are inaccurate or difficult to understand please use this form to clearly print or type directions to your location.
If there are any special instructions we must follow once we get to your location please note them below.
Please use this form only. Do not substitute!
Venue (program site): Date of program: Contact name: Telephone:
Estimated driving time from Liberty Science Center: _____ Hours _____ Minutes To ensure our timely arrival we MUST know how long it takes to reach you.
Directions—Must start from Exit 14B of the N.J. Turnpike or the Holland Tunnel
Please return via mail: Liberty Science Center Traveling Science Program 251 Phillip Street
Jersey City, NJ 07305-4699
Or by fax: 201.985.2376 Attn: Traveling Science Program In case of snow day cancellation, call 201.253.1280 as early as possible. Please reschedule for the next working day at 201.253.1310.
What Happens to the Food You Eat?
Activities Exploring the Digestive System
This packet contains some simple classroom activities utilizing everyday, inexpensive items. Please feel free to duplicate these pages as needed – they are sent on plain white paper to ensure the best quality of reproduction.
We suggest that these activities be conducted before our visit in order to familiarize students with some of the concepts we will explore together during our “Little Dragon’s Digestive System” presentation, or after our visit to
serve as a reinforcement of the concepts covered. It is entirely at the
discretion of the individual teacher as to when and if he/she chooses to use these activities, and whether or not all of the activities are appropriate for his/her class.
If you have questions about any of the enclosed activity procedures, please call our Science Educators Associate Director at 201.253.1472
We thank you for your interest in our program and eagerly look forward to visiting your school!!!
Activities Exploring the Digestive System
The purpose of these activities will be to introduce the various
components of the digestive system and to demonstrate both the physical and chemical processes that work together to break down food into
absorbable molecules. After reviewing and performing these learning activities, students will be able to describe how food travels through the body and understand the process of how food is broken down into smaller and smaller parts. Students will also learn how these smaller parts are either used by the body as nutrients or disposed of as waste.
(Online resource: www.enchantedlearning.com for glossary and printable diagrams of the digestive system suitable for younger children.)
I Can Hear That!
1. Borrow the nurse’s stethoscope, more than one of them would be even better.
2. Have the students work in pairs. One student drinks a cup of water. Have the partners listen to the throat and above the heart to hear the fluid travel to the stomach with the stethoscope. Best done before lunch or later in the afternoon!
3. Use a teaching poster or other diagram and have the students identify the parts of the digestive system as the water travels.
Fats, Proteins and Starches
Our digestive system works to break down food into fats, proteins and starch molecules that can be absorbed by our body. Once absorbed, these molecules must be transported via the blood stream to all parts of the body where they serve as fuel. Food is broken down by 2 methods; one that takes place in the presence of water, and one where food is broken down using enzymes.
Starch Analysis #1 Starches to Sugars
Starches start to be digested in your mouth. Saliva contains amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starch into small sugar molecules.
Materials:
¼ slice of bread or other starchy food (like a low salt saltine cracker per student)
Procedure:
1. Chew on your piece of starch for 1-2 minutes. Don’t swallow it! 2. After holding it in your mouth a bit, comment on the taste. Has it changed? What did it taste like at first? (Bland and plain)
3. After the first minute or two, the taste should change to mildly sweet. This is the result of the amylase converting the starch into sugars.
Starch Analysis #2
Detecting the Presence of Starch in Foods Materials:
1 large apple 1 large potato iodine
small paper plates
eye droppers (If the iodine bottle does not have one)
Procedure:
Students may work in pairs or small groups.
1. Collect a slice of apple and potato on a paper plate. 2. Place 2-3 drops of iodine on each slice.
3. Record results
Expected Outcome:
The iodine will go from orange-rust to brown on the potato and will not change color on the apple. Iodine changes color in the presence of starch.
Demonstration of Fat Content:
This demonstration can be done with a variety of food, from a single item to a complete take-out burger meal. Fat content can be calculated after processing.
Single item needed: an order of fries or hash browns. Or: quarter pounder, fries and a cola.
Materials;
Food item(s) Blender
Hot plate or microwave with covered dish 1 500 ml beaker
1 200 ml graduated cylinder (measuring cup!) 100 ml of water oven mitts
Wooden spoon Refrigerator
Procedure:
1. Break up the meal into small pieces and blend 2. Pour part of the blended mush into a 500 ml beaker
3. Add 50-100 ml water to the mush and stir well (enough to cook with, this will depend on the amount of your mush)
4. Boil mush mixture for 15 minutes or microwave covered for 3-5 mins.(until fat is released)
5. Use the oven mitts to remove the cooked mixture and pour into a graduated cylinder. Cool in the fridge for 5-10 mins.
6. Remove the mush from the fridge and measure the amount of accumulated fat at the top of the cylinder
7. Record the results
Expected Outcome:
The fat will form a layer at the top and solidify as it cools. You may calculate the percent of fat in the mush meal by dividing the mls of fat by the total mls of your sample. For younger children, observing the solidified fat and discussing the sources would be informative
Experiment with Fats
This exercise illustrates how bile fluid in the intestines emulsifies oils and fats. It is necessary for the body to emulsify fats to separate them and expose them to more enzymes to be more easily absorbed. Here,
dishwashing liquid represents the bile fluid. (Emulsify; the process of binding hard-to-combine ingredients, like water and oil. One substance is dispersed in the other. One everyday example of an emulsion is salad dressing).
Materials:
2 clear plastic cups Warm water
Dishwashing liquid (clear, no more than a teaspoon should be necessary)
Cooking oil
Tablespoon and teaspoon measures
Procedure:
1. Fill 2 classes with warm water
2. Add a tablespoon of cooking oil to each glass
3. Add a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid to one of the glasses 4. Stir both glasses well
5. Record your observations
Expected Outcome:
The glass with the dishwashing liquid will have a milky look to it and it should have tiny oil droplets. The other cup will have two very separate layers, one oil layer on the top and water below.
EEEEEWWWW! Cookie Digestion
Materials:
Rainbow Chips cookies Snack size Baggies Water
Paper towels
Procedure:
1. Review the basic stops along the digestive system, the parts and their function.
2. Put a rainbow chip cookie in a baggie. The baggie is the digestive system, the opening is the mouth.
3. Crush the cookie; the teeth break food into small pieces (don’t break the bag!) You might use Lego blocks or plastic math cubes (teeth) to achieve this effect. (Plastic Halloween vampire teeth?!)
4. Add a small amount of water; the saliva mixes with the pieces to make liquid mush.
5. Squeeze bag contents, mixing it up; churning in the stomach mixes the food together.
6. Open the bag and insert a paper towel to absorb the liquid. This is the small intestine absorbing nutrients into the blood.
7. The remainder of the brown mush is, well, waste!
8. Do you know how long it takes to empty the stomach? (2-6 hours) 9. How big is your stomach? Well, make a fist, that’s about how big it Is. Now, why do adults eat more than kids? Why do kids need snacks during the day?
If you would like to extend this activity, you will need a small piece from the leg of a pair of pantyhose, scissors, and a paper cup. Do not use the paper towel, but rather lay down a layer on a table, perhaps over newspaper, this gets messy!
10. Lay down the leg of the pantyhose on top of the paper towels. 11. Once the contents of the bag have been thoroughly mushed, cut a small hole in the corner of the bag so that the food can run out into the stocking.
12. Squeeze the food through the stocking (this is the small intestines). The water coming out of the stocking represents the nutrients going to the rest of the body.
13. Squeeze the food (waste) into the cup (representing the large intestine. Poke a hole in the bottom of the cup and push the food “waste” through to represent the excess unused food exiting the body!
There will be pieces of the candy remaining; this shows us that same waste remains in a solid form. If you substitute a piece of seeded rye bread for the cookies, the seeds would remain.
Math
The Alimentary Canal
Materials:
Tape measure
Yarn or string (nothing too thick)
The alimentary canal begins at your mouth and finishes at the end of your large intestine. In an average adult, this tube measures 27 feet in length.
Procedure:
1. Have the students measure out 27 feet of yarn or string, either in a hallway or on the blacktop. This can be labeled and measured with colored tape in the hall or with chalk outside.
2. Now, can you fit all this string or yarn into a large zip-lock bag? Pack it tightly, but leave enough out for the esophagus and stomach.
Food by Weight
The digestive system is a truly remarkable machine; during a person’s lifetime it may process between 60,000 and 100,000 pounds of food.
1. Using a small scale, have the students predict how many apples, grapes or peanuts might be needed to make just one pound.
2. Divide the class into small groups and have the children weigh the individual objects so that each group obtains one pound of weight.
Weekly Food Chart
Ask the students to keep a seven-day eating chart during the study of the digestive system. They should keep a log of what they had to eat at each meal. At the end of the week refer to the food pyramid to discuss who ate a well-balanced meal/diet and which areas students should focus on more.
