*Digestive System Lesson* Big Idea for Unit: From small to BIG Liz Campbell 5 th Grade I. Objectives A. Given the opportunity to explore and observe the digestive system through a hands-on, interactive approach the students will gain an understanding of how the digestive system works and all organs involved. B. Process skills: Students will have to reason and prove their findings from the experiment Students will communicate with myself and others throughout this lesson as a result of asking questions and working together Students will make connections to themselves throughout Digestive system will be represented during the experiment C. Purpose Statement: The digestive system is important to us because it moves our food throughout our body distributing nutrients to our cells. We are going to learn about the digestive system so we can know more about ourselves and how our body works. D. Assessment Formative: o While we are conducting the experiment, students will develop questions. o Students will actively take notes on their ipads of information throughout the instruction and experiment.
Summative: o After the instruction and experiment students will demonstrate their knowledge by creating their own life size diagram of the digestive system. II. Concept Information A. State Standards: SCI.5.4.3 2010 Design solutions to problems in the context of musculoskeletal body systems. Using suitable tools, techniques and materials, draw or build a prototype or model of a proposed design. B. Science concept that will be taught is organs involved in the digestive system and functions of each organ. C. Teachers must know the following before teaching: What organs are involved in the digestive system What order of organs does food pass through. Functions of each organ How food is digested (refer to instruction for background information) III. Safety Concerns Students who have allergies to ingredients in gram crackers and oatmeal must not ingest the food. Have students clear off their desks so nothing spills during the experiment IV. Materials Large laminated cut outs of all organs involved in digestive system for instruction Box of gram crackers 22 Baggies
Pitcher of water Jug of Orange Juice 1 pantyhose Bag of regular oatmeal Empty container ipads (each student has their own) 22 large white pieces of paper Markers V. Management A. Classroom Arrangement During anticipatory set, instruction, and experiment students will remain in their seats. While students are working on their digestive system diagrams, students will sit in various places around the classroom and in the hall. B. Time: Total time= 1 hour (see below for time spans) C. Student Behavior I will implement my own management system of clapping five times followed by students clapping five times when I want them to be quiet or gain their attention. I will frequently make sure students remain on task and are working D. Adaptations efficiently.
Remediation: I will allow students who need a visual to use their resources (book and ipad). Enrichment: For those who finish quickly or want to know more, students will research a certain part of the digestive system by looking online on their ipads or by reading books I provide ("Human Body Factory" by Dan Green, "The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body" by Joanna Cole, "The Stomach, Learning How We Digest" by James Toriello, "Your Digestive System" by Anita Ganeri, "The Digestive System" by Ben Morrison) and create some sort of visual to prove their research whether it is completed on their ipad or on regular paper VI. Anticipatory Set (15 minutes) Tell students today we are going to learn about the digestive system First we are going to watch a short movie clip of The Magic School Bus- Digestive System While we are watching make sure to notice all the organs the bus travels through and what each organ does to help digest the food Play the clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow2u6oyf9iw VII. Instruction Instruction (10 minutes) Throughout this lesson I want you to write down notes or take pictures on your ipads so you can use them to study or recall information (Date Collection) As a result of watching The Magic School Bus- Digestive System, who can tell me something about the Digestive System? Answers will vary.
Does anyone know what digestion means? Digestion is breaking down food into smaller pieces. Raise your hand if you like to eat food? When you eat do you think about where your food goes? Does anyone remember from the video what organs our food passes through? There are five important organs that food passes through in the digestive system. Those organs are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. Write the organs on the board. A way to help you remember the organs involved in the digestive system is to remember the mnemonic device: Mrs. Elizabeth sang songs loudly. Write on the board and underline the first letter of each word to emphasize that is the same first letter of the organs. The digestive system is an important part of the body because it moves our food throughout our body distributing nutrients to our cells. We are going to learn about the digestive system so we can know more about ourselves and how our body works. The first organ of the digestion system is the mouth. Place the large mouth cut out on the board. When we place food in our mouth we chew it. Chewing breaks food into smaller pieces so it can move easily throughout the rest of the organs. The food then passes through the esophagus. Place esophagus cut out on the board. The esophagus is the tube that pushes food from the mouth to the stomach. Place stomach cut out on the board. Before the food enters the stomach a muscle at the bottom of your esophagus has to relax in order for food to enter your stomach. Does anyone know where your stomach is? It is located under your lower left rib.
Your stomach is about the size of your fist. You should only be eating about that much food each meal. Have students make fists to see how much their stomach can hold. The food is now ready to move to the small intestine. Place small intestine on board. Some food cannot be digested in the small intestine so it gets passed to the large intestine. Place large intestine on board. Experiment (30 minutes) Now that you know the organs our food travels through I want you to think about the question: How do our bodies digest the food? After the food is chewed and moves through the esophagus and stomach what takes place in the small intestine and large intestine that actually digests the food? (Problem to be experimented) On your ipads write down your guess of how you think food is digested? (hypothesis) You can talk to your neighbors. We are going to do two experiments to help you answer that question. Hand out baggies with gram crackers in each to every student. We are now going to model digestion. Mash up the gram crackers. This represents chewing. Now add a small amount of water to every student s bag. This represents saliva. This makes it easier for the tongue to push the food back to the esophagus. Once the food enters the stomach acid interacts with the food. Students will add orange juice to represent acid. Mush the OJ in with the water and gram crackers. The food then enters the small intestine where nutrients are sucked out. All that is left is a watery mass of waste. After, the food moves to the large intestine. The large intestine s job is to suck all the water back into the body. Mix oatmeal and water
in a bowl. The oatmeal and water represent the waste. Put the waste in a pantyhose. Squeeze out all the water into an empty container. Now you have seen how the digestive system works. Who can tell me something they observed? What happened when we added the water and OJ to the gram crackers? Made the food mushy, broke it down, made easier to swallow. What happened with the small and large intestine? The small intestine sucks nutrients out and large intestine returns water to the body. (Draw conclusions) Was anyone s hypothesis correct? Was anyone s wrong? Why or why not? It is ok if your hypothesis was wrong, we are simply experimenting. (Determine Validity of hypothesis) (If time permits) Now I want everyone to take a piece of the large white paper. Choose someone to work with. You will trace one another on the paper. Then draw and label all parts of the digestive system on your life size model. If you have a difficult time remembering the organs you may look at the laminated cut outs on the board or you can look up a picture of the digestive system on your ipads. Closure (5 minutes) Today we have explored and observed the digestive system. Now I would like for you write down in your ipads something new you learned today. It can be the mnemonic device, what organs are involved, what are each organ s functions, etc. Now who can tell me something they learned? Answers vary. VIII. Evaluation
I will look at students diagrams I will also have students show me their notes 1. Were children able to hypothesize? 2. Were children able to collect information? 3. Were children able to record results? 4. Were children able to reach conclusions? 5. Were children able to verbalize findings? 6. Were children able to apply knowledge? IX. Self-Evaluation Was the lesson successful? What should I do differently?