Nutrition and digestion zoo tour workshop

Students will take a walking tour of our zoo animal homes where they’ll learn what we feed our animals and why it is so important to give them a suitable diet. We’ll compare the teeth of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, sort animals according to their diet, and explore what happens to food once it travels through the digestive system.

Age group: Key Stage 2
Duration: 50 minutes
Capacity: 20 pupils
Cost: £50

CURRICULUM LINKS

Working scientifically:

• Identifying differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes
• Talk about criteria for grouping, sorting and classifying.

Animals, including humans:

• Identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat
• They might compare and contrast the diets of different animals (including their pets) and decide ways of grouping them according to what they eat. They might research different food groups and how they keep us healthy and design meals based on what they find out.
• Describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans
• Pupils should be introduced to the main body parts associated with the digestive system, for example, mouth, tongue, teeth, oesophagus, stomach and small and large intestine and explore questions that help them to understand their special functions.
• Identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions
• Pupils might work scientifically by: comparing the teeth of carnivores and herbivores, and suggesting reasons for differences.