3 June 2025
Today, Year 4 kicked off their brand-new Science unit, Animals Including Humans, with an unforgettable (and slightly gross!) hands-on experiment to explore the digestive system.
To help us understand how our bodies break down food, Mr Loynds introduced what may just be the most revolting - but also the most memorable - experiment we’ve ever done in the classroom. The aim? To build a working model of the human digestive system... using real food!
The process began with some “chewing”: we crushed up biscuits and bananas to represent the start of digestion in the mouth. Once our mixture was ready, it was placed into a plastic bag (our "stomach"), where pineapple juice was added to act as stomach acid. The bag was sealed, squished, and mixed thoroughly - just like food in your tummy!
After leaving our stomach mixtures to “digest” over playtime, things got even messier. We cut a hole in the corner of each bag and squeezed the contents into a pair of tights to represent the intestines. This part of the experiment involved pushing out all the nutritious liquid (absorbed nutrients) into a bowl, mimicking what our real intestines do.
And finally… the grand finale. We cut open the tights to reveal the final waste product - poo! By this stage, the classroom was filled with a very unique smell and a mix of wide-eyed fascination and scrunched-up noses.
This messy, memorable activity wasn’t just for laughs - it gave everyone a fantastic insight into how our digestive system works, from start to finish.
