Date

Title: Human digestive system

Learning intention: to be able to describe the steps of digestion.
Do Now: what do we already know?

Separate the images into 2 groups. Literacy toolkit:

Digestion: Digestion is the process where

large molecules are broken down into
smaller molecules to be absorbed into
the blood.

Keywords: nutrients, digestion, mouth,

stomach, intestines, liver, oesophagus.

Deepening knowledge:
Challenge: Explain your choice. Name organs of the human body which
relate to digestion.
 What we eat: Literacy toolkit:

Digestion: Digestion is the process where

Food large molecules are broken down into
Activate: what do you need to know?

smaller molecules to be absorbed into

the blood.
What your body needs:
Hint:
Small nutrients –
Glucose and amino The nutrients need to be break down
acids into smaller molecules that can be pass
to the blood and be transported.
But how the food can be converted to
simple molecules?
Deepening knowledge:
By the digestive system Why nutrients need to pass in the blood?
 Alimentary canal: the whole
passage along which food passes
through the body from mouth to
anus during digestion.
Diet must contain.. Balanced diet: a diet which contains the
correct proportion of food – carbohydrates,
• Carbohydrates proteins, fats, vitamins & minerals, water and
• Proteins fiber. These are good sources of nutrients
• Fats
Digestion: Digestion is the process where
• Vitamins
large molecules are broken down into
• Minerals smaller molecules to be absorbed into the
• Water blood.
• Fibre Energy you need each day comes from food. If
you eat excess food - it is stored as fat.
If you eat too little, you don’t have enough
energy and you feel tired
 • Vitamins are organic and minerals are inorganic
substances and needed in small amounts. Lack of this
Importance of can cause deficiency disease
vitamins and
• Fiber helps keep alimentary canal (intestines) working
minerals & properly, food can easily move through, muscles
Fiber contract and relax to push food along this is peristalsis.
• Foods with fiber cannot be digested so will be removed
as feces by the rectum.
 Fat and heart disease
• Fats found in animal food is called saturated fats containing
cholesterol - Too much of this is unhealthy!
• If people eat a lot of these foods containing this, they are likely to get
heart disease, because fats build up in arteries (blood vessels) making
it narrow.
• Heart disease can happen to the coronary arteries which supply the
heart muscle cells with oxygenated blood.
• This makes it difficult for the oxygenated blood to travel in the narrow
coronary artery, if there is reduced oxygen – heart muscles cannot
work properly – leading to coronary heart disease
Foods containing saturated fats – NOT
GOOD
 White meat such as
Better alternatives fish & chicken
Vegetable oil and
polyunsaturated
spreads
Obesity
• Obese people are more likely
to get heart disease, strokes
and diabetes
• You can control weight by
eating normal, well-balanced
meals
• Having a healthy lifestyle and
regular exercise
Malnutrition
• Malnutrition is having an
unbalanced diet. Example - this
is lack of protein and energy
from a diet.
• This can lead to starvation – not
enough food can lead to death
 Food is broken down from large
pieces to small pieces -
ingestion. This is done by teeth
Digestion - grinding. No chemical changes
involved
MECHANIC
AL This is also done by ‘CHURNING’
movements by the alimentary
(contracting and pushing)
Process is called Peristalsis
Tooth structure
Types of teeth
Digestion - CHEMICAL This is a type of
carbohydrase

• Breakdown of large insoluble molecules into smaller soluble

molecules
• Remember this is done by enzymes

Starch– amylase – glucose

Proteins – protease – amino acids

Lipids (fats) – lipase – fatty acid and glycerol

 The human digestive system Literacy toolkit:
Digestion: Digestion is the process where
large molecules are broken down into
smaller molecules to be absorbed into
A
the blood.
Activate: what do you need to know?

C Hint:
You need to be able to label the diagram
of the digestive system.
E D
F G Deepening knowledge:
I
What could be the function of each
H organ?
J K
Success criteria:
L

I can state the main organs of the

digestive system.
• Oesophagus – this is next to your windpipe, this takes food down to your stomach
• When you swallow epiglottis which is a piece of cartilage this covers the entrance of
trachea (wind pipe)
• Salivary glands – have salivary amylase which break down carbohydrates (starch)
• Stomach – made of muscular walls they contract and relax to churn the food and mixed
with enzymes and mucus – this is called chyme
• Main enzyme produced is pepsin (protease) here as it can work in acidic pH
• Peristalsis – alimentary canal contains muscles which contract and relax to help move
food along

• Small intestine – enzymes made in pancreas are secreted here to help further digest. Its
lined with epithelial cells with Villi which help with absorption. Enzymes are made in the
pancreas which are secreted (poured) into the intestines, these enzymes are called
‘pancreatic juice’ so contains amylase – protease – lipase. These enzymes would
denature in the stomach which is why they work in the intestines. Micronutrients is
absorbed back into the blood and delivered to body cells and tissues
• Bile – this is another juice that is secreted into the small intestines. It’s a
yellow/green color and its used to neutralize the acidic mixture which has
come from the stomach so its alkaline. Bile does not contain enzymes.
• Bile does help digest fats through a process called emulsification. This just
means that it breaks large fats into smaller ones. Its particularly done by
bile-salts in the bile. This makes the job of the lipase easier
• Bile is originally made in the liver but stored in the gall bladder

• Large intestine – This can be called colon. They are wider tubes that small
intestines. Some foods are undigested and cannot be absorbed so moves
into the colon. Excess water and salts are absorbed here too but not as
much as small intestines. Indigestible foods, some water and dead cells
pass through the rectum as feces and then out of the anus – this is
egestion.
• Assimilation – this is when nutrients are reabsorbed back into the
body. Liver cells have an important functions as well as ‘hepatic portal
vein’. Some of the nutrients are directly used by the body cells for
metabolic reactions. They become ‘assimilated’ into the cell.
• Liver cells have a role in detoxification
• Liver cell allows excess glucose to be converted to glycogen and
stored. Hepatic portal vein carries the blood containing nutrients from
the intestines to the liver.
1. What are the monomers of carbohydrates?
Glucose
2. What are the conditions of the stomach (range of pH)?
Acidic – Hydrochloric acid (HCL) Ph rages from 1-3

3. What is the definition of the alimentary canal?

The whole page where food passes along, from mouth to the anus

4. What is the definition of peristalsis which organs carry this out?

Alimentary canal has muscles, it contracts and relaxes to pass food along. Stomach and small intestine

5. WhatPhysical
is the difference between
digestion is done chemical
by ingestion, usingand
teethphysical digestion? in stomach, whereas
& churning/peristalsis
chemical uses enzymes to break larger food molecules into smaller micronutrients (monomers)

6. What 3 enzymes
Amylase,does the&pancreatic
protease juice have
lipase also pancreatic juiceand whereinto
is secreted is itthe
secreted into?
small intestines

7. What are the

Neutralizes the2stomach
different
acidroles of bile? which bile salts break down large fats into smaller fats
& emulsification

Assimilation is when micronutrients move from blood into the body cells, whereas absorption is
8. What is the difference between assimilation and absorption?
micronutrients are first moved from digestive system into the blood
Pancreas
 Diarrhea
• Cholera bacteria is ingested and can multiply
• Th bacteria attached to the wall of the alimentary canal
• The bacteria releases toxins
• The toxin then causes Cl- ions to be released
• The release of these ions in the gut causes water to move from high
concentration to low concertation by osmosis
• There is now lots of water present in the gut so watery feces is released
• Blood now contains little Cl- ions and water causing dehydration
• Oral rehydration therapy is used to replace lost water and ions
Microvilli means
membrane is
folded to
provide a large
surface area
Epithelial Cells with
Microvilli line the small
intestines and allow
absorption of
micronutrients back into
the blood
Glucose monomers

to the body cells

They are first broken down into glycerol and fatty acids

faster rate of diffusion

Villi
Re-engaging: now what?
The steps of digestion
 Answer the following questions based on the video and Literacy toolkit:
your notes.
Digestion: Digestion is the
1. What is the function of the digestive system? process where large
Re-applying: now what do you know?

2. What is the first step of digestion and what nutrient molecules are broken down
is broken down? into smaller molecules to be
3. What is happening in the stomach? absorbed into the blood.
4. Where does the digestion of fats take place and
what series of events need to take place?
5. Into what molecules does each nutrient break down Deepening knowledge:
to?
6. What is the function of villi and where you will find How is the human digestive
them? system adapted for each
7. What does it happen in the large intestine? function?

Success criteria:
I can describe the digestive system and explain the process of digestion.

Assessment for Learning: how do I know what you know?
Adaptation: any alteration in the structure or function
Explain how the small intestine is of an organism or any of its parts that results from
adapted for better and quick natural selection and by which the organism
becomes better fitted to survive and multiply in its
absorption of the nutrients (6 marks). environment.
Thin walls –
just 1 cell thick Hint: How does the structure of villi help
them for their function? The nutrients
need to be diffused from the one side to
the other quick and in how amount.
Network of
capillaries Deepening knowledge:
How do the nutrients pass through the
walls and does this process require
energy?
Success criteria: I can explain how the
human digestive system adapted for each
function.
Plenary: how do you make sense of what you know? What more The diagram below shows the human digestive 1. Digestive enzymes are made by different organs in
system. the digestive system. Complete the table below
putting a tick (✓) or cross (✕) in the boxes.
The first row has been done for you.
do you need or would like to know?

  Organ producing enzyme

  salivary small
glands stomach pancreas intestine
amylase ✓ ✕ ✓ ✓
Enzyme lipase        
protease        

2. The stomach also makes hydrochloric acid.

How does the acid help digestion?
(i)      What is Organ A? (1) (1)
gall bladder                liver                stomach
(ii)     What is Organ B? (1)
large intestine         pancreas         small intestine Hint: Use your notes to help you answer the
  exam questions.