Name: Date:

Student Exploration: Digestive System

Vocabulary: absorption, amino acid, carbohydrate, chemical digestion, chyme, complex carbohydrate,
digestion, digestive system, elimination, enzyme, fat, fatty acid, fiber, food calorie, mechanical digestion,
monoglyceride, nutrient, peristalsis, protein, starch, sugar, villus

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

1. Why do we need to eat food? We need food to survive, energy for activity,
growth, and all functions of the body such as
breathing, digesting food, our circulatory
system needs to transfer nutrients to the
millions of cells in our body by our circulatory
system and these nutrients provide the
energy needed for synthesis of essential
chemical compounds used for growth,
maintenance and repair.

2. How do you think our bodies break food down in our small intestines, it break down food
into useful nutrients? with enzymes released by the pancreas and
bile released from the liver. and they are
mainly responsible for the absorption of
nutrients.

Gizmo Warm-up
The digestive system is a group of organs that does three things:
● First, the digestive system breaks food down into useful
nutrients, a process called digestion.
● Next, the nutrients move into the bloodstream, a process
called absorption.
● Finally, the leftover waste is removed from the body, a process
called elimination.

With the Digestive System Gizmo, you can arrange the organs of the
digestive system any way you like. To begin, look at the organs on the LARGE ORGANS tab. Place your
cursor over each organ to learn more about it.

1. Which organs allow nutrients to be absorbed? Small Intestine: Jejunum and Ileum

2. Which organ stores and compacts waste

Rectum
before it is eliminated?

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3. Which two organs help to break food down
Mouth and Stomach
mechanically?

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 Activity A:
Get the Gizmo ready:
Build a digestive ● If necessary, click Clear screen.
system

Goal: Design your own digestive system.

1. Explore: Read the descriptions of the large organs, as well as those of the small organs on the next tab. Fill
in the names of the organs that serve the functions listed below:

Large Intestine This organ absorbs water and vitamin K from digested food.

Pancreas This organ produces enzymes that break down nutrients.

Capillaries These tiny blood vessels transport absorbed nutrients.

parietal cells These cells produce hydrochloric acid (HCl).

Chief cells These cells produce pepsin, which breaks down proteins.

2. Build: Now it is time to design and build your own digestive system! Start with the LARGE ORGANS tab to

to the large organs to complete your system. 📷

build a basic system, starting with the Mouth/pharynx. Next, attach organs from the SMALL ORGANS tab
Open the Tools menu and click Screenshot. Right-click
the image, choose Copy Image, and paste the image below.

3. Predict: How well do you think your system will digest food? Explain your reasoning.

I believe that Digestion will be complete, I tried to put all the organs on where it’s
supposed to be, however I might’ve made some mistakes on the small organs and it
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 might digest food differently but I am pretty sure digestion will be completed.

4. Prepare: Select the FOOD tab. The energy we get from food is measured in food calories (Calories). Each
Calorie is equal to 4,184 joules of energy. Calories are found in the three main nutrients in food:
carbohydrates (sugars and starches), proteins, and fats.

Drag the Cheeseburger above the mouth in your digestive system. How many Calories in the
cheeseburger come from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats?

Carbohydrate Protein
226 Cals 140 Cals Fat Calories: 360 Cals
Calories: Calories:

5. Run the Gizmo: Click Play ( ), and observe the food moving through the digestive system. The muscular
contractions that push food through the system are called peristalsis. When food has finished passing
through the system, you will see a message.

A. What percentage of Calories were absorbed by your system? 41.5

B. What percentage of water was absorbed? 94.69

C. Based on these results, how well do you think this digestive system worked?
Explain.

My digestive system absorbed a good percentage of water. however, 41.5 for

calories isn’t that good, under normal circumstances, our bodies absorb around
90% calories, and I think this is why the resulting stool was solid because it did not
absorb as much as it is needed.

6. Revise: Click Reset ( ). Rearrange the organs of your system to try to improve your results. Describe
how you changed your system below.

I decided to put my chief cells in my esophagus before it enters the stomach and the
system improved a lot. and I also placed the capillaries near the end of the system.

7. Test: Click Play or Fastplay ( ). List the results below.

Did the system Percentage of Calories Percentage of

yes 72.45 94.69
improve? absorbed: water absorbed:

8. Explain: If your system improved, why do you think this was so?

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Protein breaks down better than the other system since chief cells make pepsin and moved
vessels closer to the end of the system.
made the system take nutrients from the digested food and deliver it to the body

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 Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:

Mechanical and ● Click Reset and Clear screen.

chemical ● Build a system with a Mouth, Salivary
digestion gland, Esophagus, Pancreas, and Rectum.

Introduction: Before nutrients are absorbed, they must be broken down to their simplest components. Teeth
and muscular contractions in the stomach break food down into smaller particles, a process called mechanical
digestion. In the meantime, powerful chemicals break down food in a process called chemical digestion.

Question: How are nutrients broken down in your digestive system?

1. Set up the Gizmo: Check that the current digestive system has a mouth, salivary gland, esophagus,
pancreas, and rectum, as shown above. From the FOOD tab, drag the Baked potato to the mouth. A
potato mostly consists of complex carbohydrates, such as starch.

A. View the ANALYSIS tab. What is the initial value of complex carbohydrates? 228

B. Click Play or Fastplay. What is the final value of complex carbohydrates? 196.68

C. How many Calories of complex carbohydrates were converted to sugars? 47.32

Explain how you know below.

The pancreas produces enzymes that convert carbohydrates to sugars.

The pancreas produces three digestive enzymes: Amylase breaks down complex carbohydrates into
simple carbohydrates (sugars), trypsin breaks down proteins into amino acids, and lipase breaks down
fats into fatty acids and monoglycerides.

2. Experiment: Click Reset. Move the Rectum, Esophagus, and

Pancreas to the right and insert the Stomach so that the system
looks like the image at right. Click Play/Fastplay.

A. After digestion is complete, what is the value 22.26

of complex carbohydrates?

B. How many Calories of complex 221.74

carbohydrates were converted to sugars?

C. Why do you think the results were different?

stomach broke down the food chemically

The muscular walls of the stomach churn food, transforming food chunks into a thick liquid called chyme.
The nutrients in chyme break down more easily because they are exposed to digestive enzymes rather
than hidden in food chunks.

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3. Observe: Click Reset. Drag the Steamed tofu above the mouth. The Calories in tofu mostly come from
proteins and fat. We will look at fat digestion first.

A. What is the initial number of fat Calories? 90 Cals

B. Click Play. How many fat Calories were converted to fatty acids? 27 cals

4. Experiment: Click Reset. Move the Pancreas one space to the right (still attached to the esophagus).
Place the Gallbladder on the esophagus to the left of the pancreas. Click Play.

A. How many fat Calories were converted to fatty acids in 87.37

this situation?

B. How did adding the gallbladder affect fat digestion? The gallbladder stores bile
produced by the liver. and
the bile helps to break fat

Fat molecules can be difficult to break down because large fat droplets do not mix well with water-based
enzymes such as lipase. For lipase to work, it helps if the fat is emulsified into tiny droplets. This is done
with the help of bile, which is stored in the gallbladder.

5. Observe: Now look at the results for proteins. (Do not press Reset yet.) Proteins are complex molecules
formed from long chains of amino acids.

How many of the original 72 protein Calories were converted to amino acids? 1.44 Cals

6. Experiment: Click Reset. The process of protein digestion is helped by the enzyme pepsin.

A. Look at the remaining small organs. Which ones produce chief cells
pepsin?

Add these cells to the stomach.

B. Click Play. How much protein is converted to amino acids now? 29.09 Cals

C. Click Reset. Pepsin works best in an acidic environment. Which parietal cells
of the remaining small organs produces an acid?

Add these to the stomach.

D. Click Play. How much protein is converted to amino acids now? 69.87 Cals

7. Explain: How do mechanical and chemical digestion work together to break down food?

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Mechanical digestion is when food is broken down and it is a physical change, however
chemical digestion is when breaking it down to get the nutrients from the physically digested
food.

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 Activity C: Get the Gizmo ready:

Absorption ● Click Reset and Clear screen.

Introduction: Digesting nutrients into simple carbohydrates, amino acids, and fatty acids is important, but it
doesn’t matter unless the nutrients get into the bloodstream to feed body cells. This process is called
absorption.

Question: How are nutrients absorbed?

1. Observe: Look through the descriptions of the large and small organs.

A. Which of the large organs allow nutrients and water to Small Intestine: Duodenum
pass through their walls?

B. Which of the small organs transport absorbed Capillaries

nutrients to the bloodstream?

2. Set up the Gizmo: Create the digestive system shown. The small intestine has three parts: the duodenum
(attached to the stomach), the jejunum (the middle portion), and the ilium (attached to the large intestine).
Drag the Pecan pie to the mouth.

Test each of the scenarios below. For each setup, record the nutrients that are absorbed by the system.
(Be sure to look at the “Absorbed” row of the Analysis table.)

Amino Fatty
Scenario Sugars Water
acids acids
Capillaries attached to the small intestine
265.86 20.96 0 18 g
segments only
Capillaries attached to the large intestine
59.08 4.66 0 3.6
only
Lymphatic vessels attached to the small
0 0 171 0
intestine segments only (no capillaries)
Lymphatic vessels attached to the large
0 0 38 0
intestine only (no capillaries)

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3. Analyze: Examine the results of your four experiments.

A. Which nutrients were absorbed by capillaries in the small intestine?

Sugar, amino acids, water

B. Which nutrients were absorbed by capillaries in the large intestine?

Sugar, amino acids, water

Bacteria in the large intestine break down some types of fiber—a difficult to digest
complex carbohydrate—into sugars that are absorbed in the large intestine.

C. Which nutrient was absorbed by small intestine lymphatic vessels? fatty acids

D. Did lymphatic vessels absorb anything from the large intestine? no

4. Draw conclusions: Based on your experiments, where should the capillaries and lymphatic vessels be
placed to maximize the absorption of nutrients from food?

Capillaries: If we locate them on the Small intestine, it would maximize the absorption

Lymphatic vessels: If we locate them on the Large intestine, it would maximize the absorption

5. Investigate: Click Reset. From the FOOD tab, drag the Apple to the work area to view its
Nutritional Facts. What nutrient makes up most of an apple’s Calories? Sugar

6. Challenge: Using a total of only five organs, design a digestive system that can absorb the maximum
number of Calories from the apple. Describe your system below.

Mouth, esophagus, small intestine, capillary, rectum

7. Test: Click Play.

What percentage of Calories did your system absorb? 70%

8. Explore: Use the Gizmo to determine how absorption of water affects the texture of the stool (poop) that is
produced by the digestive system. What do you conclude?

higher amounts of water absorbed to result in solid stool. and Lower percentages of water
absorbed results in liquid stool.

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 Activity D: Get the Gizmo ready:

Human digestion ● Click Reset and Clear screen.

Introduction: Now that you have explored a model of human digestion, it is time to apply what you have
learned to the real human digestive system.

Goal: Describe the human digestive system.

1. Label

2. Think and discuss: Why is it important that the mouth and stomach are near the start of the digestive
system?

They are part of the physical digestion, it is important to have the food physically digested
before chemically, and it will be a lot easier for the body to take the nutrients and etc.

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3. Match: Match each structure, chemical, or process to its function.

K Amylase A. Upper section of the small intestine

E Peristalsis B. Muscular tube connecting the throat and stomach

A Duodenum C. Organ that produces a variety of digestive enzymes

I Lymphatic vessel D. Chemical that breaks up large fat droplets

G Anus E. Muscular contractions that push food through the digestive system

J Large intestine F. Enzyme that starts to digest proteins in the stomach

B Esophagus G. Opening through which wastes are eliminated

F Pepsin H. Produces hydrochloric acid in the stomach

C Pancreas I. Transports absorbed fatty acids to the bloodstream

H Parietal cell J. Organ that absorbs water and vitamin K

D Bile K. Enzyme that breaks down starches into simple carbohydrates

4. Infer: The diagram at right shows part of a villus. A villus is a tiny, fingerlike
projection in the wall of the small intestine. The small intestine contains millions of
villi.

A. What are the names of the vessels labeled A and B in the diagram?

A: Lacteal B:Capillaries

B. What do you think is the function of a villus?

Their function is to absorb food. however, they are also used for luminal
sensing, absorption, secretion, and immune defense in the small intestine.

5. Evaluate: In humans, the small intestine can be over 8 meters (26 feet) long. Why do you think this organ is
so long?

This is due to the fact that it increases surface area and allows for greater nutrient and
water absorption.

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