Pantyhose Digestion

In Brief

Students use pantyhose to simulate digestion, with whole class involvement in peristalsis from mouth to anus!

Materials

2 pair pantyhose, paper (images of food), pencils, bucket, water, paper towels, needle and thread

QUIL

Cut the toes off of pantyhose, making one leg very short.   Sew up the waste.  Sew on more length with more pantyhose legs.  With a permanent marker, label the small and large intestine, stomach, and esophagus. Stretch this “digestive system” across the room across the room, with all the students lined up along the length.  Let kids crumple wet paper (pictures of food, perhaps?) to simulate mastication.  Then have them stick the paper into the esophagus.  Act out peristalsis as they push the paper down the esophagus and into the stomach.  Continue until a “full meal” is in the stomach.  Have students continuously churning the stomach in a shallow pan of water, and then trying to send the paper on through the intestines by squeezing it through (peristalsis again).  They will see that much more paper goes in than comes out! Older students can try to figure out how to simulate the digestive system, given the materials.

Credits

Birdie Champ, B.S., M. Ed., The Massachusetts Academy of Sciences