Digestive System Lab

For this lab, we measured different lengths of string to represent the length of the digestive tract and all of its organs; from this, we were able to see a physical representation of the journey that our food has to take while being digested before it is excreted.

The main thing that I realized while doing this lab was just how long the small intestine is, because given that it is always depicted as a curled up lump of an organ, I hadn't realized how tightly wound our small intestines are. After seeing the length of my small intestine in person, I came to the conclusion that the length of this organ would make sense, considering that the small intestine is the organ most vital to taking nutrients out of our food, and absorbs the most nutrients(longer organ=longer time to process food). Along with the surprising length of my small intestine, I was intrigued by the seemingly far-fetched lengths of string that represented the esophagus, mouth, stomach, and large intestine. After adding up all of the lengths, I got a total length of 913.5 cm, or 9.135 m.

The length of my digestive system is more than 5 times my height, which is quite a substantial amount, so the only way that it could truly fit would be to curl and twist around itself multiple times(i.e. the small intestine) or sit slightly angled inside my body(i.e. the stomach).

I think it takes on average about a day or so for food to move through my entire digestive system. Food is not immediately digested and then excreted before the next meal, so I think this is a reasonable guess. My guess was in fact way off; food travels through your stomach and small intestine withing a matter of 6-8 hours, but passing through the large intestine adds another 40 or so hours to the digestion time, making the average digestion time among all people more or less 53 hours. I think the chyme takes so long to pass through the large intestine because the large intestine is responsible for retaining or excreting a specific amount of water based on factors like your hydration or general well being, and therefore must determine how little or much water to extract from the chyme in accordance to the body's current condition. 

Digestion is different from absorption in that digestion is the process of breaking down foods, while absorption is the process of extracting nutrients from various foods. The mouth, esophagus, and stomach are most responsible for digestion, while the small intestine and large intestine are responsible for absorption.

Some things I am curious about concerning the digestive system is the relative time it takes to digest different foods in comparison to others, as well as how much energy it takes to digest a typical meal(i.e. how many calories you can burn just by digesting).

New Year Goals

The goal that I have for this class specifically this semester is to work on finding the best way to study for the tests that I have in this class. Last semester, we took a VARK questionnaire to find out how we study the best, and I found that aural, or listening, was in fact the best way that I studied; however, I will endeavor to find additional, more specific tactics to study for this class, and try new studying techniques that I may later apply to other classes in the future. My action plan for this goal will be first to keep track of/underline/highlight important terms and things that will for sure be on the test during class, when we take notes for the first time. Next, I will review my notes when the test date approaches by picking out certain terms or concepts that I don't understand or remember and take notes on those specific terms. Then, I will enlist in the help of a peer to go over the list of those terms that I didn't understand previously, and highlight the terms that I still feel are not as solid in my mind yet. The remaining terms will be far less in number than the first list of terms that I wrote down, and by focusing on those problem areas before the test in addition to browsing over the topics I covered before, I will be able to achieve greater success in my studying for this class.

The goal that I have in general spanning the entire semester would be cutting down on the amount of time that I spend procrastinating. In general, this year has probably been the worst for me in terms of procrastinating, and I feel that my sleep, stress levels, and maybe even a part of my grades have been suffering because of it. The action plan that I will set for this particular goal would be to first cut down the time between getting home and starting my homework to 30 minutes, because I have found that the longer that I spend not doing homework, the less that I want to start it. Then, when starting my homework, I will make sure to keep a glass of water next to me to keep me hydrated and focused when doing my work. To cut down on potential distractions, I will make sure to keep my phone away from me while doing homework by giving it to my sister to safe keep; additionally, if I have to do any homework on the computer, I will try to find website blockers to keep me from being distracted when I don't feel as motivated to do work.