Lesson 3.1 Introduction to Power: The goal of this lesson is to introduce students to the concept of power in the human body through examination of the body’s ability to survive in extreme environments. They will explore the resources that fuel life as well as debate how long the body can last when these resources become scarce. Students will discuss how environmental conditions and personal factors impact the body’s ability to deal with a fuel shortage. As the unit progresses, students will study the body systems that help create, process, or distribute each of the body’s three main resources – food, oxygen, and water.

Lesson 3.2 Food: The goal of this lesson is for students to relate the macromolecules that are processed from food to energy potential. Student teams will design and build models of the human digestive system and model chemical digestion of a specific bite of food as it moves through this model. Students will investigate enzyme-substrate interactions and design experiments to test the optimal conditions for the action of the catalase enzyme. Acting as nutritionists or dieticians, students will analyze diet and explore the concept of metabolism. They will assess a fictional client, analyze diet, and write a client report that compares energy inputs and outputs and analyzes overall health and fitness. Finally, students will directly relate food, particularly glucose, to the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). They will explore the structure of ATP and examine how this energy source is used to fuel all of the cellular processes in the body. 

Lesson 3.3 Oxygen: The goal of this lesson is for students to investigate respiratory system anatomy and analyze how disease impacts function in this system as well as in other systems of the body. In the first activity, students are introduced to a young woman who is experiencing shortness of breath and wheezing during her normal activities. As they progress through her case and make a diagnosis, students explore the structure of the respiratory system and its connection to the cardiovascular system. Students explore the changes in the respiratory system that lead to a condition such as asthma. The second activity introduces students to the mechanics of breathing and to the use of a spirometer to measure lung capacity. Students will then analyze prescription medications and begin to think about how drugs work in the human body. Students will analyze how each medication prescribed to their patient relates to anatomy and physiology. Students will then play the role of a respiratory therapist to design a plan to help their patient manage her illness. 

Lesson 3.4 Water: The goal of this lesson is for students to review the many functions of water in the human body and explore the main human body system that not only conserves water and important ions, but also rids the body of harmful wastes – the urinary system. Students will explore the structure of the kidney by completing a dissection and mapping out the general path of urine formation and excretion. Students will then zoom in on the kidney and explore exactly what takes place in the nephron, the functional unit of the organ. By creating a drawing of nephron action, students will explore the connection between blood and urine and then visualize which substances are reabsorbed by the body and which substances are filtered out of the blood and excreted as urine. Students will then investigate how the body uses hormones to regulate and control the amount of water in the body. Finally, students will unlock the medical clues hidden in urine as they complete urinalysis testing for fictional patients. They will see that changes in urine often signal illness or dysfunction that originates in body systems other than the urinary system.