Testing for carbohydrate and fat in food

Even more experiments from Elena's sexto class.  They have been testing different foods for carbohydrate (starch using iodine solution from the pharmacy) and fat (using medical alcohol).  These are the easiest food groups to test for and the students catagorised the different foods by what nutrients they contained.

 
Link to pdf: Nutrients in food teaching notes and worksheet

Measuring energy in food by Elena

More cool experiments from Elena's sexto class.  They have been burning different types of nuts and measuring how much heat energy the fire makes.  They caught the energy in a test tube of water and measured the temperature increase - you can use this to calculate the energy in the food.  Fire, test tubes and burning food and you can sneak some maths in too. 

If you have a nut alergy problem in the class you can use things like pringles crisps, bread and biscuits but they are not as easy to burn as nuts are.

Link to pdf:  Energy in food teaching notes and worksheets

Simulating digestion by Elena

Elena has been doing nutrition and digestion with sexto.  They have been using ladies tights to simulate intestines and have investigated how food passes through the intestine walls.  They did peristalsis with their hands and looked at what foods were absorbed quickly, slowly and not at all.

It looks messy and fun!
Link to pdf:  Teaching notes and worksheet