Making Poop: A Look at the Making Poop Lab

The 2016-2107 NEW School class preformed an experiment about making feces. This experiment was called "Making Poop Lab". This allowed the class to learn about the digestive system and how it eventually leads to the generation of excreta. This blog will contain a walk through of the "Making Poop Lab" and information on the digestive system.

At the outset,  the digestive system is when food is physically and chemically transmuted and transferred through a number of organs and substances. At the end of this process, ultimately, poop is created. The digestive process begins in the mouth, where food is first ingested. 

In the mouth the incisors start by cutting up the food so that it is easier for the molars to pulverize. 

The Plastic Tub Represents the Mouth and the Scissors, Acting as Incisors, Cut Up the Food

Next, saliva chemically breaks down the food so that it is easier for molars to crush the food. You can find the enzyme Amylase in saliva. Amylase breaks down chemical elements, such as starch. 

The Liquid Represents Saliva that Breaks Down the Food

After the saliva breaks down the food the molars mechanically breaks down the food by squashing it.

Plastic Cups, Symbolizing Molars, "Chews" the Food

Subsequently, the mashed food then journeys down the esophagus to the stomach. 

A Cardboard Cylinder Exemplifies the Esophagus 

Once the smashed food reaches the stomach, it is greeted with hydrochloric acid, This chemically breaks down the food even more, 

Different Chemicals are Added to Connote Hydrochloric Acid

While the food is in the hydrochlrolic acid, it is churned by the muscles around the stomach, assisting by mechanically breaking down the food. 

Hands Squishing the Bag Represent the Muscles Churning the Acid and Food in the Stomach

At this point the food is now chyme (an acidic fluid consisting of gastric juices and partly digested food). It passes from the stomach, through the pyloric sphincter (which acts as a valve, allowing only chyme to pass through), to the small intestines. 

The Chyme, Passing through the Pyloric Sphincter Represented by a Cardboard Tube, is Delivered into the Small Intestine 

When it enters the small intestine, bile that enters the intestine breaks down the chyme into smaller pieces. Bile is produced in the liver and is stored in the gallbladder until the small intestine needs bile. This allows lipase (an enzyme produced in the pancreas(the pancreas produces a number of enzymes)) to easily chemically break down fats in the chyme. Enterokinase is also able to break down proteins more easily. These enzymes allow proteins and fats to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

The Small Intestine, Impersonated by the Stocking, Chemically Breaks Down Chyme with Lipase and Bile

Once here, the small intestine transfers the chyme to the large intestine, where excess water and nutrients are absorbed. In the large intestine, the leftover materials are prepared to become feces.

The Large Intestine, Imitated by a Tube Sock, "Absorbs" Excess Water and Nutrients. It Also Prepares the Materials to be Defecated

The large intestine transfers the final product to the colon, where muscles start creating contraptions. Once enough force is applied, the waste is propulsed out of the rectum.

The Poop being Propulsed out of the Rectum  Creating Scybala

In denouement, food passes through the digestive system, so we can produce energy and survive. It allows us to keep our body from being a reaping victim of entropy, for a while at least. Basically, food ingested in the body is broken down in the mouth, transferred through the esophagus, broken down in the stomach, travels through the small and large intestines, and is finally defecated through the rectum, so that we can rid our body of elements we don't specifically need to survive. This ingenious biological process allows us to get rid of what we don't need. 

That concludes the "Making Poop Lab" analysis 

Image credits given to Derek Torres (Derik Torres) and Kyrie Kennemore