Curiosity, period by period — fitted to your timetable.
Tell Meyy your periods and their length; it plans every chapter of Curiosity to fit, and you tick off sections as you teach.
What does food do inside us?
Observe and record life processes · Discovery approach
This opening unit orients students to the chapter's starting point — that digestion is a chemical and physical process, not just swallowing. Watch for the common idea that digestion happens only in the stomach; the chapati activity directly challenges this. Prompt students with 'Why do you think the taste changes — is it your tongue, or something in your saliva?'
0-8Teacher introduces the chapter by asking students where they think digestion begins and what happens to food once it enters the body.
8-22Students chew chapati slowly and record the gradual change in taste; a brief pair discussion follows on what might be causing the sweetness.
22-35Whole-class sharing of observations; teacher connects the sweetness to chemical breakdown of starch by saliva in the mouth.
35-40Students note three questions they still have about how food is processed further in the body.
Competency (C-3.2). Distinguishing the characteristics of living organisms including need for nutrition, growth and development, need for respiration, response to stimuli, reproduction, excretion, and cellular organisation.
Learning outcome. Students can record observable evidence of starch breakdown in the mouth and sequence the organs of the alimentary canal with one key function per organ.
A student chews a piece of chapati slowly for a long time and notices it begins to taste sweet. What does this observation most directly indicate?
- A Chewing heats the food slightly, which makes starch taste sweeter.
- B Saliva contains a substance that converts starch into simpler sugars.
- C The stomach sends a signal to the taste buds that food is ready to be swallowed.
- D The teeth crush the chapati finely enough to release natural sugars already present in it.
B. Saliva contains a substance that converts starch into simpler sugars.
What each wrong option reveals
- A Student constructs a plausible-sounding physical explanation (heat) rather than identifying a chemical agent in saliva — a common naive theory about why food changes with prolonged chewing.
- C Student confuses the trigger for swallowing with the cause of taste change, possibly drawing on prior knowledge of hunger signals without understanding digestion in the mouth.
- D Student attributes the taste change to mechanical breakdown alone, not recognising that saliva contains a chemical agent — a misattribution of cause to teeth rather than salivary juice.
Also saved as 9 periods or 11 periods or 13 periods or 15 periods.
- 2Testing starch breakdown — the iodine test
Observe and record life processes - 3Tracing the alimentary canal — organ by organ
Observe and record life processes - 4What does each digestive secretion do?
Classify structures and secretions by function - 5Small intestine — why so long, why so folded?
Classify structures and secretions by function - 6Classifying animal digestive adaptations
Classify structures and secretions by function - 7How peristalsis moves food — a causal account
Explain the causal mechanism of digestion - 8Why does the stomach not digest itself?
Explain the causal mechanism of digestion - 9Building the chest cavity model — demonstrating breathing mechanics
Explain the causal mechanism of digestion - 10Exhaled air contains more carbon dioxide — lime water evidence
Explain the causal mechanism of digestion - 11Gas exchange at the alveoli — a causal mechanism
Explain the causal mechanism of digestion - 12How do other animals breathe? — lungs, gills, and skin
Compare and connect life processes across animals - 13Connecting digestion and respiration — nutrients as fuel
Compare and connect life processes across animals - 14What happens when one process fails?
Apply to explain how life processes collectively sustain animal life - 15Why must digestion and respiration be continuous?
Apply to explain how life processes collectively sustain animal life - 16Predicting adaptive responses — linking structure to survival
Apply to explain how life processes collectively sustain animal life - 17The Diving Beetle's Day — Tracing Life Processes Through a Single Animal
Apply to explain how life processes collectively sustain animal life
- 1. The Ever-Evolving World of Science
- 2. Acidic, Basic, and Neutral
- 3. Electricity — Circuits and their Components
- 4. The World of Metals and Non-metals
- 5. Changes Around Us — Physical and Chemical
- 6. Adolescence — A Stage of Growth and Change
- 7. Heat Transfer in Nature
- 8. Measurement of Time and Motion
- 9. Life Processes in Animals
- 10. Life Processes in Plants
- 11. Light — Shadows and Reflections
- 12. Earth, Moon, and the Sun
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