Science - Year 11: Biology - Multicellular Organisms: Digestive Systems

Science Understanding:

In animals, the digestive system is responsible for the breakdown of food and absorption of nutrients required for survival.

• Relate the structure of organs of the digestive system to their function.
• Describe the structure and function of villi in the human digestive system.

Possible Contexts:

• Construct a table to summarise the major macromolecules (e.g. proteins), their monomers (e.g. amino acids), and their specific digestive enzymes (e.g. proteases).
• Describe how different nutrients are absorbed through the villi by various transport processes including diffusion, active transport, and endocytosis.
• Compare digestive systems from various animals (e.g. ruminants, insects, and birds)
• Investigate digestive enzymes and factors that may affect their function (e.g. amylase and pH or lipase and temperature).
• Perform experiments to show the products of digestion are the monomers of macromolecules (e.g. use of Benedict’s solution and Sudan III).

As you look through the various resources collected on the pages of this LibGuide, keep an eye out for those resources that have information on more than just one area. It is also important to remember that you need to consider each source critically, as well as an opportunity to build keywords and search terms to conduct further research of your own.