Diet and Exercise

INTRODUCTORY PAPER

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

            This project is aimed to create a sense of ownership within each student about his or her diet and exercise.  In the first half of the project, students will explore the structure and function of the digestive system.  With this understanding, students will also discover how the foods each chooses to eat effects his or her body.  During this project, students will keep a record of their diet in a journal and compare it with the diet from the movie: Supersize Me.  In the second half other project, students will explore the effects of different exercise plans.  Maintaining an equal balance between diet and exercise is vital to an overall healthy fitness.  Students will be able to compute calorie intake and calorie burned by gathering information from the Internet and using a calculator to compute their net result.  At the end, both diet and exercise are merged together.  To evaluate the class's progress and understanding, each student will give one presentation to the class.

DRIVING QUESTION:

How do diet and exercise affect your body?

OVERALL GOALS OF THE PROJECT

            Our main goal at the end project is for students to learn how to improve their overall health through diet and exercise.  During this process, students will learn different body organs and processes as well as nutrition and exercise.   

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

∙Students will be able to: 

∙Identify the parts of the digestive tract

∙Recognize the function of each part of the digestive tract

∙Locate where fats, carbohydrates, and protein are initially broken down

∙ Describe the process of respiration

∙ Identify the role and function of the diaphragm.

∙ Understand why breathing increases during exercise.

∙Identify bronchi and the function of the alveolar capillaries.

∙Describe the process of muscle contraction and filament sliding.

∙Identify the role and actin, myosin, acetyl choline, and calcium in muscle contraction.

∙Understand the sliding model of contraction as well as a few key vocabulary words

∙Understand why breathing increases during exercise.Understand why breathing increases during exercise.

∙Identify bronchi and the function of the alveolar capillaries.

∙Describe the process of muscle contraction and filament sliding.

∙ Identify the role and actin, myosin, acetyl choline, and calcium in muscle contraction.

∙ Understand the sliding model of contraction as well as a few key vocabulary words

∙ Understand why breathing increases during exercise.

∙ By completing this activity the students will be able to calculate how many calories they are burning on a daily basis. 

∙ They will also calculate the percentage of calories they are burning.

∙ See how their nutritional intake compares to the recommended daily values. 

∙ Students will be able to read and interpret the nutrition labels of food.           

∙ They will be able to understand the nutrition facts, serving sizes, and percent of daily value. 

∙ They will also compare and contrast the content levels of fat, protein, carbohydrates, calcium, and sugar in these foods.

RATIONALE

Emphasis on weight has become a growing trend in America.  Statistics have shown that the number of children and adults who were overweight had jumped significantly in the past several years.  Due to this alarming statistic, more and more people are becoming conscious of their diet and exercise plan.  However, is it enough to decrease the number of overweight people, especially children? Texas alone has four of the top ten fattest cities (http://chicago.about.com/cs/miscellaneous/a/fattest_cities.htm). " Thirty-five % of Texas school-age children are considered overweight or obese." (Strategic Plan for the Prevention of Obesity in Texas, pg 13 ). 

            This project is aimed to create a sense of ownership within each student about their diet and exercise.  In the first half of the project, students will explore the digestive system's structure and function.  With this understanding, students will also discover how the foods each chooses to eat effects his or her body.  During this project, students will keep a record of their diet in a journal and compare it with the diet from the movie: Supersize Me .  In the second half of the project, students will explore the effects of different exercise plans.  Maintaining an equal balance between diet and exercise is vital to an overall healthy fitness.  Students will be able to compute calorie intake and calorie burned by gathering information from the internet and using calculator to compute their net result.  At the end, both diet and exercise are merged together.  To evaluate the class's progress and understanding, each student will give one presentation to the class. 

            This project's impact has a long lasting effect. Each young student will learn how and why one can become overweight, but how one can also combat it as well. A website will be built for students to communicate and discuss health issues.  Students from the class will post different cases of health concerns and reply with suggested solutions.  This allows students from other schools to learn about health from each other.  Discussion boards would allow them to communicate with each other or other students can post different health issues in order to receive suggested solutions.  This website over the years can cumulate different situations that other class generations can learn from.   Therefore, students will be equipped with the knowledge to maintain a healthy weight throughout their lives.  If so, then hopefully the statistics in Texas would decrease. 

BACKGROUND

            The digestive system breaks down our food and absorbs the nutrients to supply the body with its basic necessities.  The digestive system main key areas are the mouth, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, liver, and pancreas.  The mouth is where carbohydrates (sugars) are broken down by the enzyme amylase.  The stomach is where protein is first digested.  Gastrin initiates this breakdown.  The liver breaks down fats via bile, which is stored in the gall bladder.  The pancreas is a source of many enzymes that aids in the breakdown of food.  The small intestine absorbs the nutrients.  The large intestine also known as the colon is the location of E.coli that produces Vitamin K.  Vitamin K aids in our immunity, hence its importance. 

A portion of this project focuses on how carbohydrates, fats, and protein affect our body.  Fats provide us with lots of energy, but too much consumption can lead to unhealthy organs.  Carbohydrates is the main source of energy for humans.  The breakdown of protein results in amino acids, the basic unit to produce other proteins.  Too much consumption of any one is unhealthy and a balance is needed.  Sites to refer to for more information: http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec12/ch152/ch152b.html, http://nutrition.about.com/od/recipesmenus/a/balanceddiet.htm, and http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/digest/index.htm.

Both the respiratory system and the muscular system are affected by exercise.  When someone exercises their heart rate goes up and so does their breathing.  This helps supply the blood with more oxygen so that it can be carried to the various body systems including the muscle cells.  These muscles are performing work by the use of muscle contraction, as can be seen in the sliding filament model.  In order to perform this work the muscles have to be provided with energy in the form of carbohydrates and ATP.  Each muscle contraction requires an action potential and the use of ATP created by the use of oxygen.  These contractions occur not only in the muscles being worked directly, such as the legs while running, but also any other body movements (arms, eyes, mouth, the diaphragm).  So obviously these two systems are separate but yet extremely dependent on one another.

The mathematics portion of this unit is used as a supplementary tool whereas the richness really lies in the science portion.  Mainly what we are trying to do is give the students a glimpse of what their diet consists of.  They will know how their personal diet compares to the daily recommended intake.  They will also calculate their calories burned, and percent of calories burned.  We will be using nutrition labels from various foods to look at concepts like serving sizes and percent daily values. 

            For the math portion, one of the biggest tools we use us the Diet Analysis + version 6.1 program.  This program has a database of over 5,000 foods and their nutritional values, the students use this to input their data they have collected over the week.  Their data is their diet, so everything they ate during that week they will find the food in the program and the program will supply them with the nutritional content of that food, and give them a detailed summary of their diet's nutritional content, complete with graphs showing intake amounts, and recommendations on how to improve their diet.

            Lastly, another useful tool is a calorie burner calculator found online at http://www.prevention.com/caloriecalc/0,5719,s-4-121-48-1158-1,00.html.  Here is where they discover how many calories they are burning while participating in exercise activities.  Much like the data collected of food intake, they will have a journal of exercise.  For a week they write down what activity they did and for how long.  Then they use this data to calculate the amount of calories burned daily, and percentage of calories burned.

TEKS STANDARDS:

Biology :         

(19) Knowledge and skills.

(1)  Scientific processes. The student, for at least 40% of instructional time, conducts field and laboratory investigations using safe, environmentally appropriate, and ethical practices. The student is expected to:

(A)  demonstrate safe practices during field and laboratory investigations;

(2)  Scientific processes. The student uses scientific methods during field and laboratory investigations. The student is expected to:

(C)  organize, analyze, evaluate, make inferences, and predict trends from data; and

(D)  communicate valid conclusions.

(3)  Scientific processes. The student uses critical thinking and scientific problem solving to make informed decisions. The student is expected to:

(A)  analyze, review, and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information;

(E)  evaluate models according to their adequacy in representing biological objects or events

(5)  Science concepts. The student knows how an organism grows and how specialized cells, tissues, and organs develop. The student is expected to:

(A)  compare cells from different parts of plants and animals including roots, stems, leaves, epithelia, muscles, and bones to show specialization of structure and function;

(B)  identify cell differentiation in the development of organisms; and

(C)  sequence the levels of organization in multicellular organisms to relate the parts to each other and to the whole.

(6)  Health behaviors. The student assesses the relationship between body structure and function and personal health throughout the life span. The student is expected to:

(A)  examine the effects of health behaviors on body systems;

(9a): Compare the structures and functions of different types of biomolecules such as carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids

 (10)  Science concepts. The student knows that, at all levels of nature, living systems are found within other living systems, each with its own boundary and limits. The student is expected to

            (A)  interpret the functions of systems in organisms including circulatory, digestive, nervous, endocrine, reproductive, integumentary, skeletal, respiratory, muscular, excretory, and immune;

            (B)  compare the interrelationships of organ systems to each other and to the body as a whole

(11)  Science concepts. The student knows that organisms maintain homeostasis. The student is expected to

            (B)  investigate and identify how organisms, including humans, respond to external stimuli

            (C)  analyze the importance of nutrition, environmental conditions, and physical exercise on health

(12)  Science concepts. The student knows that interdependence and interactions occur within an ecosystem. The student is expected to

(A)  analyze the flow of energy through various cycles including the carbon oxygen, nitrogen, and water cycles;

Algebra I

(a) Basic understandings.

(4) Relationship between equations and functions. Equations arise as a way of asking and answering questions involving functional relationships. Students work in many situations to set up equations and use a variety of methods to solve these equations.

Mathematics

(15)  Underlying processes and mathematical tools. The student communicates about Grade 8 mathematics through informal and mathematical language, representations, and models. The student is expected to:

(A)  communicate mathematical ideas using language, efficient tools, appropriate units, and graphical, numerical, physical, or algebraic mathematical models; and

(B)  evaluate the effectiveness of different representations to communicate ideas.

(16)  Underlying processes and mathematical tools. The student uses logical reasoning to make conjectures and verify conclusions. The student is expected to:

(A)  make conjectures from patterns or sets of examples and nonexamples; and

(B)  validate his/her conclusions using mathematical properties and relationships.

NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS:

Technology Foundation Standards for Students

1. Basic operations and concepts

• Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems.
• Students are proficient in the use of technology.
  
  
1. Social, ethical, and human issues
• Students practice responsible use of technology systems, information, and software.
• Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.
  
  
2. Technology productivity tools
• Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
  
  
3. Technology communications tools
• Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.
• Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.
  
  
4. Technology research tools
• Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.
• Students use technology tools to process data and report results.
• Students evaluate and select new information resources and technological innovations based on the appropriateness for specific tasks.
  
  
5. Technology problem-solving and decision-making tools
• Students use technology resources for solving problems and making informed decisions.
• Students employ technology in the development of strategies for solving problems in the real world.

ASSESSMENTS

            This unit project is one that will not only increase student's knowledge of nutrition and the body systems, but it will also have an impact on the way students live their lives.  Throughout the semester there will be various short quizzes over topics covered on a daily basis and there will be an end of unit examination.  This way students will be forced to keep up with material and not wait until the end of the unit to study. Not to mention, they will be able to further understand what they do on a daily basis.  Also, after the first and second 1/3 of the unit, students will present on their assigned project.  These projects will force students to keep a daily record of their diet and exercise as well as compare their data to an "ideal healthy diet plan".

            By presenting students with facts about how diet and exercise affect the body both physiologically and psychologically students will be forced to reconsider their own health.  The teacher can look at student's daily log of diet and exercise to research as to whether or not the student is actually changing and continue to encourage this change.  This will provide the teacher with insight into the student's lives and application of their learning far beyond what any examination could provide.