5th Grade Science — The Human Body — Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
Students will learn how the digestive system breaks down food into energy and nutrients, and how its complexity reveals intelligent design.
Every time you eat a meal, an amazing process begins inside your body. The digestive system is like a long, winding factory that takes the food you eat and breaks it down into tiny nutrients your body can use for energy, growth, and repair. This system is about 30 feet long from start to finish — that is longer than a school bus!
Digestion begins in your mouth. Your teeth — designed in different shapes for cutting, tearing, and grinding — break food into smaller pieces. Your saliva contains special chemicals called enzymes that start breaking down starches right away. God designed your tongue to push the chewed food into a ball and send it down your esophagus to your stomach.
Your stomach is a muscular bag that churns food and mixes it with powerful acids and enzymes. These acids are strong enough to dissolve metal, yet God designed a special mucus lining to protect your stomach wall from digesting itself! This built-in protection system is another example of brilliant design that could not have happened by chance.
From the stomach, food moves into the small intestine, which is about 20 feet long and coiled up to fit inside your abdomen. The walls of the small intestine are covered with millions of tiny finger-like projections called villi. These villi absorb nutrients from your food and pass them into your bloodstream. God designed this incredible surface area to make sure your body gets every nutrient it needs.
The liver, pancreas, and gallbladder all assist digestion by producing bile and additional enzymes. The large intestine absorbs water and prepares waste for elimination. Every organ in this system has a specific role, and they all work together in perfect harmony — a clear testimony to our Creator's wisdom and care.
Create a labeled diagram of the digestive system, tracing the path of food from the mouth to the end. Use a piece of string or yarn to measure out 30 feet to visualize how long your digestive tract actually is. Write 1 Corinthians 10:31 on your diagram.