Lesson 2: Food - Matter & Energy

1. What kinds of organisms did you see?
2. What do those organisms need to survive?
3. Where do they get the things they need to survive?
4. Where do we, and ALL animals, get our energy?
5. When you and animals grow, where does the matter that gets added to you and their bodies come from? 
   

1.Animals/Insects: Squirrels, Worms, Centipedes, Pill bugs, Birds, and ants.
Plants: Trees, Grass, Flowers, Bushes

2. Animals/Insects: Sleep, Food/Carbon, Water, Oxygen, Shelter/Warmth,
Plants: Water, Sunlight, Carbon, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Carbon

3. Carbon dioxide and oxygen come from the air.  Plants absorb water in the soil with their roots.  Animals/Insects get water from bodies of water (Not the ocean).  Food comes from plants and other animals.  Plants get sunlight from the sun, lamps, or lights.

4.  Our main source of energy is food.  While we sleep, our body converts it into energy.

5.  Our matter comes from food.  But not all foods will give us more matter.

Human Food

1. How do we find the energy (calories) per serving?
2. How do we find the matter (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals)?
3. Where can we locate the list of ingredients?
   

 





1.  Usually, it is under the first bold line, right next to the word calories.  It is inside the black rectangle.

2.  Under the calorie count, there are several lines containing that information.  This information goes until the black rectangle ends.

3.  Right after the box ends, at the bottom, ingredients are listed. 

Pet Food

1. Where can we locate the list of ingredients?
2. How do we find the percentage of different types of matter in the food?

1. The ingredients are right at the top, under the boldfaced word "Ingredients".
2. A few lines under the ingredients, the percentage of different types of matter in the food are listed.

1. As a result of looking at food labels, what did you learn about food?
2. Look at the ingredients of one human food label. Write down the food name. What ingredients came from animals?
3. What ingredients in the above food label came from plants?
4. What similarities and differences did you notice between the human food and pet food labels you looked at?
5. Choose an animal/insect from the ecosystem walk. What do you think it eats? Explain what you think it gets from its food.

1. I learned that there is more measurable elements in food than calories, fats, and cholesterol. There is sodium, potassium, proteins, fibers, and different minerals.
2. The food label show is from tomato soup.  None of the ingredients can be traced back to an animal.  Almost every one is directly from producers.
3. Each of the items above, except for water, can be traced back to a plant.  In fact, every ingredient from every recipe can be traced back to one.
4. The first thing I noticed was that the layout was different.  The human food label first listed the nutritional values first then the ingredients while the pet label had that order in reverse.  Also, some of the nutritional values in the pet label aren't in the human label (and vice-versa).
5. The animal I chose is an ant.  I think ants eat leaves and nectar from flower buds.  When animals eat, they eat for energy and matter.  Nectar, which is high in sugar, would give ants a supply of energy while leaves would give them that and matter.

Reflection Questions

1. What does food provide to animals, including humans?
2. Do the pet food and human food have the same nutrients? In what ways are they different?
3. Does a higher calorie count mean a food is better for pets to eat? What makes pet owners think that?
4. What is it in food that helps us repair our bodies and grow?
5. What in food helps us move and stay warm?
6. In what way does energy transfer when animals eat food?
7. Look at the nutrition label below for milk. How much energy is in the food?
8. What matter is in the food?

1. Food provides matter, energy, and warmth for all animals.  Human kind made eating a multi-sense experience, which is the reason most humans eat more than they really need.
2. Pet food and human food don't have the same nutrients because of needs.  A dog probably doesn't need as many sugars a human needs and a human doesn't need as many minerals a dog needs.  That is the reason why the list of nutrition values in the pet food label is longer than the values on the human food label.
3. Not necessarily.  Just because pets don't have the same nutritional values as humans, doesn't mean that a pet can't have too much food.  But since some pets are highly active, a pet owner may thing the extra calories are necessary.
4. ​Minerals, like iron, are needed to grow.  Proteins are somewhat like a building block in the body.  Skin, muscle, and hair are made from it.
5. To move and stay warm, we need energy.  Although almost everything in every food provides some, carbohydrates are the best source.
6. ​Most animals store about 1/10 of the calories they eat.  As they keep on eating, this 1/10 can end up representing thousands of calories.  But when another animal eats that organism, they get 1/10 of that.
7. 160 calories in one cup of milk.
   
8. Fats, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, sugars, proteins, calcium, and vitamin A and B.