Question 8
How does digestion happen?
You will need: a banana, a cracker biscuit, vinegar, water, one leg of a pair of tights with foot cut open, a plastic basin or tray, scissors, a small sealable plastic bag, a newspaper, a plastic squeezy bottle with the base cut off.
- Put the cracker, banana and water into the plastic bag.
- Add orange juice.
- Seal the bag and twist, and squash it a few times until the foods are mixed well with the liquids.
- Pour the squashed food into the tights leg. Do this over a tray placed on a sheet of newspaper.
- Squeeze the food to the end of the leg.
- Water and nutrients from the food will be pushed into the tray. Squeeze until no more broken-down ‘food’ comes out.
- Put what is left in the tights leg into the wide end of the squeezy bottle. Squeeze the bottle hard to push the waste through the other end.
Editorial safety note: the book lists vinegar but asks for orange juice in the steps. Ask the teacher to provide orange juice for the written method. An adult should prepare the cut bottle and tights. Use clean equipment, wash hands, do not eat the model mixture and take care with scissors. This is a model, not actual chemical digestion.
Say which part of the digestive system and digestion is represented by the: plastic bag.
You will need: a banana, a cracker biscuit, vinegar, water, one leg of a pair of tights with foot cut open, a plastic basin or tray, scissors, a small sealable plastic bag, a newspaper, a plastic squeezy bottle with the base cut off.
- Put the cracker, banana and water into the plastic bag.
- Add orange juice.
- Seal the bag and twist, and squash it a few times until the foods are mixed well with the liquids.
- Pour the squashed food into the tights leg. Do this over a tray placed on a sheet of newspaper.
- Squeeze the food to the end of the leg.
- Water and nutrients from the food will be pushed into the tray. Squeeze until no more broken-down ‘food’ comes out.
- Put what is left in the tights leg into the wide end of the squeezy bottle. Squeeze the bottle hard to push the waste through the other end.
Editorial safety note: the book lists vinegar but asks for orange juice in the steps. Ask the teacher to provide orange juice for the written method. An adult should prepare the cut bottle and tights. Use clean equipment, wash hands, do not eat the model mixture and take care with scissors. This is a model, not actual chemical digestion.
Say which part of the digestive system and digestion is represented by the: plastic bag.
