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SCIENCE
QUARTER 4 – MODULE 1
(Week 1)

The Human Digestive

System:
Its Functions, Stages, and
the Pathway of Food
 What I Need to Know

This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you
master the human digestive system and how it works. The scope of this module
permits it to be used in many different learning situations. The language used
recognizes the diverse vocabulary level of students. The lessons are arranged to follow
the standard sequence of the course. But the order in which you read them can be
changed to correspond with the textbook you are now using.
The module consists of:
• Lesson 1 – The Human Digestion
➢
1.1 – The Main Stages of Digestion
➢
1.2 - The Sequential Stages of Food Processing

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. explain ingestion, absorption, assimilation, and excretion;
2. define digestion and discuss its importance;
3. describe the parts and functions of the human digestive system;
4. trace the pathway of food and the changes that take place as
food travels through the human digestive system; and
5. suggest ways to keep your digestive system healthy.

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 What I Know
Directions: Read the questions carefully and then choose the letter of your
answer. Use a separate sheet of paper for your answers.
1. What type of molecules does bile break down?
A. carbohydrates C. proteins
B. fats D. vitamins

2. What process refers to the absorption of nutrients by each cell of the body in
the form of energy?
A. absorption C. excretion
B. assimilation D. ingestion

3. Choose the correct order of digestion.

A. absorption-ingestion-excretion-assimilation
B. ingestion-absorption-assimilation-excretion
C. ingestion-assimilation-absorption-excretion
D. ingestion-excretion-assimilation-absorption
4. Which of the following organs of the digestive system produces enzymes?

A. anus C. pancreas
B. esophagus D. pharynx

5. It is the process by which undigested food content and waste products are
being eliminated from the body.
A. absorption C. excretion
B. assimilation D. ingestion

6. Why is there a need to chew food thoroughly before swallowing it?

A. For easy digestion
B. To allow greater extraction of nutrients
C. To avoid choking
D. All of the above

7. amino acids: active transport = _________: passive transport

A. fructose C. small peptides
B. glucose D. vitamins

8. What first aid can be applied to dislodge upper airway obstruction or choking?
A. compression C. resuscitation
B. Heimlich maneuver D. use of inhaler

9. Which is TRUE about the two sphincters between the rectum and the anus?
A. The inner sphincter is voluntary while the outer sphincter is involuntary
B. The inner sphincter is involuntary while the outer sphincter is voluntary
C. Both sphincters are voluntary
D. Both sphincters are involuntary

10. The process where nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream of the body is
called ________.
A. absorption C. excretion
B. assimilation D. ingestion

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 Lesson The Human Digestion

What’s In
All living things, including us humans, need food. Food fuels our body with
the energy we need to function. But for that to happen, the food we eat must
undergo a process so the complex material will be broken down into smaller pieces
that our body can absorb and utilize.

Answer the activity to decipher the process.

Activity 1: What’s the Secret?

Directions: Write the beginning letter of each picture in the box to discover
the secret word.

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 What’s New

Activity 2: Digest Me!

Directions: Rearrange the letters to form the word that is being defined in the
following sentences.

1. SGTEOIIND – the process of breaking down food into substances that can be
used by the body.
2. TNIEOSGIN – a process where food is taken in through the mouth.
3. RSNOOPBTIA – the process where nutrients are absorbed into the blood
stream of the body.
4. MLSASAIINTOI – the process where nutrients are being absorbed by each cell
of the body in the form of energy.
5. TXRECEONI – the elimination of undigested food content and waste products.

The food you eat takes an incredible journey through your body – from the
mouth to the anus. Along the way, the beneficial parts of your food are absorbed,
giving you energy and nutrients which are essential for your growth and the
replacement of worn and damaged tissues. The nutrients in the food you eat
cannot be absorbed by the body unless it is broken down into simpler molecules in
the process of digestion.

What is It

The Main Stages of Digestion

Obtaining nutrition and energy from food is a multi-step process which has
four main stages: ingestion, absorption, assimilation, and excretion.

The first step to obtaining nutrition is ingestion, a process where food is

taken in through the mouth and broken down by teeth and saliva. Simply, it is the
act of taking in food.

Once food is in the mouth, the teeth, saliva, and tongue play important roles
in mastication (preparing the food into bolus). Mastication, or chewing, is an
extremely important part of the digestive process, especially for fruits and
vegetables, as these have indigestible cellulose coats which must be physically
broken down. Also, digestive enzymes only work on the surfaces of food particles,
so the smaller the particle, the more efficient the digestive process. While the food
is being mechanically broken down, the enzymes in saliva begin to chemically
process the food as well. The combined action of these processes modifies the food
from large particles to a soft mass that can be swallowed and can travel the length
of the esophagus.

During digestion, food is broken down into molecules small enough for the body
to absorb. Mechanical digestion, such as chewing, typically precedes chemical
digestion. Mechanical digestion breaks food into smaller pieces, increasing the surface
area available for chemical processes. Chemical digestion is necessary because animals
cannot directly use the proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, fats,

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and phospholipids in food. One problem is that these molecules are too large to
pass through membranes and enter the cells of the animal.

After the food is broken down, the next stage happens – absorption, where
nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream of the body. It occurs by active,
passive, or facilitated transport mechanisms. In assimilation, the nutrients are
being absorbed by each cell of the body in the form of energy. This process is
important in cell growth, development, and new cell production.

The final step in digestion is excretion - the elimination of undigested food

content and waste products. After food passes through the small intestine, the
undigested food material enters the colon or large intestine, where most of the
water is reabsorbed. The semi-solid waste is moved through the colon by peristaltic
movements of the muscle and is stored in the rectum. As the rectum expands in
response to the storage of fecal matter, it triggers the neural signals required to set
up the urge to eliminate. The solid waste is eliminated through the anus using
peristaltic movements of the rectum.

What’s More

The Sequential Stages of Food Processing

Using the human digestive system as a model, let’s now follow a meal
through the alimentary canal. As we do so, we’ll examine in more detail what
happens to the food in each digestive compartment along the way.

Figure 1. The Human Digestive System (Scanned from: Reece J., et. al. (2014) Campbell Biology. 10th ed. USA: Pearson)

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The Oral Cavity, Pharynx, and Esophagus
Ingestion and the initial step of digestion occur in the mouth, or oral cavity.
Mechanical digestion begins as teeth of various shapes cut, mash, and grind food,
making the food easier to swallow and increasing its surface area. Meanwhile, the
salivary glands deliver saliva through ducts to the oral cavity.

The release of saliva when food enters the mouth is a reflex, an automatic
reaction mediated to the nervous system. Saliva, the watery liquid produced by
glands located under the tongue, is an essential component of the digestive
process. Saliva is 98% water, so it moistens the mouth and helps compact food into
softened particles for easier swallowing. Saliva also contains special enzymes that
help digest the starches in your food.

After food is deemed acceptable and chewing begins, tongue movements

manipulate the mixture of saliva and food, helping shape it into a ball called a
bolus. During swallowing, the tongue provides further help. Pushing the bolus to
the back of the oral cavity and into the pharynx.

The pharynx, or throat region, opens on two passageways: the trachea

(windpipe) and the esophagus. The trachea leads to the lungs, whereas the
esophagus connects to the stomach. Once food enters the esophagus, peristaltic
contractions of smooth muscle move each bolus into the stomach.

Swallowing must be done carefully and correctly to keep food and liquids
from entering the trachea and causing choking, a blockage of the trachea. The
resulting lack of airflow into the lungs can be fatal if the material is not dislodged
by vigorous coughing, a series of back slaps, or a forced upward thrust of the
diaphragm (the Heimlich maneuver).

Figure 2. Intersection of the human airway and digestive tract. (Scanned from: Reece J., et. al. (2014) Campbell Biology.
10th
ed. USA: Pearson)

Digestion in the Stomach

The stomach, which is located just below the diaphragm stores food and
begins the digestion of proteins. With accordion-like folds and a very elastic wall,
this organ can stretch to accommodate about 2L of food and fluid. The stomach
secretes digestive fluid called gastric juice and mixes it with the food through a
churning action. This mixture of ingested food and gastric juice is called chyme.

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Digestion in the Small Intestine
Although chemical digestion of some nutrients begins in the oral cavity or
stomach, most enzymatic hydrolysis of macromolecules from food occurs in the
small intestine. The small intestine is the alimentary canal’s longest compartment
– over 6m 20 feet long in humans. Its name refers to its small diameter, compared
with that of the large intestine. The first 25 cm (10 inches) or so of the small
intestine forms the duodenum. It is here that chyme from the stomach mixes with
digestive juices from the pancreas, liver, and gallbladder, as well as from gland cells
of the intestinal wall itself.

The pancreas aids chemical digestion by producing an alkaline solution rich

in bicarbonate as well as several enzymes. The bicarbonate neutralizes the acidity
of the chyme and acts as a buffer.

Digestion of fats and other lipids begins in the small intestine and relies on
the production of bile, a digestive fluid that is made in the liver. Bile contains bile
salts, which act as emulsifiers that aid in the digestion and absorption of lipids
such as fats. Bile is stored and concentrated in the gallbladder.

While enzymatic hydrolysis proceeds, peristalsis moves the mixture of chyme

and digestive juices along with the small intestine. Most digestion is completed in
the duodenum. The remaining regions of the small intestine, called the jejunum
and ileum, are the major sites for absorption of nutrients, as discussed next.

Absorption in the Small Intestine

To reach body tissues, nutrients in the lumen must first be absorbed across
the lining of the alimentary canal. Most of this absorption occurs at the highly
folded surface of the small intestine. Large folds in the lining encircle the intestine
and are covered with finger-like projections called villi. In turn, each epithelial cell
of a villus has on its apical surface many microscopic projections, or microvilli,
that are exposed to the intestinal lumen.

Processing in the Large Intestine

The alimentary canal ends with the large intestine, which includes the
colon, cecum, and rectum. The small intestine connects to the large intestine at a
T-shaped junction. One arm of the T is the 1.5-m-long colon, which leads to the
rectum and anus. The other arm us a pouch called the cecum. The cecum is
important in fermenting ingested material, especially in animals that eat large
amounts of plant material. Compared with many other mammals, humans have a
small cecum. The appendix, a finger-like extension of the human cecum, has a
minor and dispensable role in immunity.

The colon completes the reabsorption of water that began in the small
intestine. What remain are the feces, the wastes of the digestive system, which
become increasingly solid as they are moved along the colon by peristalsis. It takes
approximately 12-24 hours for material to travel the length of the colon. If the
lining of the colon is irritated – by a viral or bacterial infection, for instance – less
water than normal may be reabsorbed, resulting in diarrhea. The opposite problem,
constipation, occurs when the feces move along the colon too slowly. Too much
water is reabsorbed, and the feces become compacted.

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 The undigested material in the feces includes cellulose fiber. Although it
provides no caloric value (energy) to humans, fiber helps move food along the
alimentary canal.

A rich community of mostly harmless bacteria lives on the unabsorbed

organic material in the human colon, contributing approximately one-third of the
dry weight of feces. As by-products of their metabolism, many colon bacteria
generate gases, including methane and hydrogen sulfide, the latter of which has an
offensive odor. These gases and ingested air are expelled through the anus.

The terminal portion of the large intestine is the rectum, where the feces are
stored until they can be eliminated. Between the rectum and the anus are two
sphincters, the inner one being involuntary and the outer one being voluntary.
Periodically, strong contractions of the colon create an urge to defecate. Because
filling of the stomach triggers a reflex that increases the rate of contractions in the
colon, the urge to defecate often follows a meal.

Activity 3: Break it Down, Yo!

Directions: Use the clues to fill in the puzzle with the correct words. Match the
number of the sentence to the boxes placed across or down the grid.

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 What I Have Learned

Activity 4: Reader’s Digest

Directions: Read the paragraph and complete the process of digestion by filling in
the blanks with the correct terms associated with the digestive system.

The digestive system starts in the 1__________. Food is broken down into
smaller pieces by chewing with our 2__________. This first step of digestion is called
3__________. The food gets mixed with a juice called 4__________ in the mouth. The
food goes through the 5__________ to the 6_________. Here, it mixes with the digestive
juices. Food is then passed into the 7__________. Here, nutrients from the food are
taken in by the blood in the process known as 8__________. When the nutrients from
the food is in the bloodstream, it will then be absorbed by each cell of the body in a
process called 9__________ to provide energy to the cells. The undigested food passes
into the 10_________ and finally is thrown out of the body through the 11__________
in the process known as 12__________.

What I Can Do

Activity 5: Model it!

Directions: The illustration below is a representation of the human
digestive system using everyday items. Identify which part of the human
digestive system each item represents.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Figure 3. Model Digestive System (https://anatomywbi.weebly.com/team-activities.html)