Experiment #1 4th Quarter

Name:

Group #:
I. The Amylase
Materials:
- Marie Biscuits
- Cheese
Procedure:
1. Put small Marie Biscuit in the tip of your tongue. Observe for 10 seconds.
2. Put small Cheese in the tip of your tongue. Observe for 20 seconds.
Guide Questions:
1. What happened to the Marie Biscuits? To the Cheese?
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2. Why do you think it happened?
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II. The Stomach

Materials:
- Ziplock (1 Ziplock per group)
- 1 piece of Loaf Bread
- Water
Procedure:
1. Put the piece of bread in the ziplock bag.
2. Place water.
3. Mix the bread and water together. Observe.
Guide Questions:
1. What happened to the bread and water when you mix it?
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2. Why does it happen and what does it represent?
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III. MAKING POOP
Materials:
Banana (½ per group)
Crackers (3-4 per group)
Lemon juice or clear vinegar (to represent stomach acid)
Water
Zip-lock plastic bag
1 cut-off leg of tights/stockings (i.e. small intestine)
1 plastic cup as a funnel (with cut-off bottom) 
1 plastic cup as a plunger  
Gloves – small size (1 pair per student) 
Scissors 
A tray or large bowl
1 paper cup with a hole (i.e. large intestine)
Procedure:
1. Place the banana and crackers inside the ziplock bag (“eat”). Slowly add A LITTLE BIT of water
(“saliva”).
 2. LET ALL THE AIR OUT and zip the bag shut. Then smash all the ingredients with your hands until no
more clumps are present (“chew”) your mix.
3. Squeeze the food into one end of the bag – it went from the mouth via the esophagus to the stomach.
Add some acid to the mix (lemon? vinegar?) and continue mashing it.
4. From the stomach, the snack needs to pass into the tights (small intestine). Tilt the bag up slightly and
cut a small hole in one corner of the bag. (The corner where you’re not tipping the mix towards!)
Squeeze the contents of the bag into the cut-off tights while holding everything above the trey/bowl.
5. Squeeze the food through the tights. Keep squeezing to let the liquid run out. (Note that the water is
actually absorbed in the large intestines!)
6. Eventually, cut the toe off the tights and squeeze the waste food out into the plastic/paper cup (“large
intestine”). Make sure to cut off a SMALL (1 cm radius) hole on the bottom of the cup (“anus”).
7. Finally, push the waste food through the bottom of the cup onto the tray (to model going to the toilet).
Guide Questions:
Structure (Organ) Function How was the function modeled in the simulation?
Mouth

Esophagus

Stomach

Stomach acid

Small intestine

Nutrients

Large intestine

Anus