journey+of+a+fat+molecule-creative+story

The following task will be given as homework in Wednesday's lesson (26th March) but feel free to do this prior to then.

Task: Imagine you are a fat molecule in a chocolate donut that is about to be eaten. Write a creative story (no more than a couple of paragraphs) about your impending journey.
 * 1) Make it interesting but also try and show as much understanding of the digestive system.
 * 2) I suggest you write it in word and then copy and paste it into this page. Use TIMES NEW ROMAN FONT SIZE 12.
 * 3) I would also like you to comment on at least TWO other stories (in the Discussion section of this page) suggesting improvements if necessary.
 * 4) By Friday's lesson (28th March) I expect to see interesting and biologically accurate stories from everyone.

Once upon a donut, there was a fat molecule named fat Albert, or fat Al as his other fat molecule friends would call him. He lived a pretty normal and boring life, as he sat behind a sheet of glass in Glicks bakery store. On the 14th of October poor fat Al’s life was about to change.

On the morning of the 14th of October a young stunningly gorges girl named Danielle walked through the door of Glicks bakery. She stood for a moment and thought hard, as she was about to make the hardest decision of her life. Which donut looked the yummiest? She finally came to a decision and happened to chose the one in which fat Al and all his friends lived in. she gave the cashier the $2:50 and proceeded out of the store. As she continued down the street she opened the paper bag which contained the donut and took and obscurely large bite.

Poor Al had no idea what was going on, as he was no longer part of a donut but a smaller piece of donut which was being mechanically broken down into smaller pieces and softened up by a gooey liquid called saliva. All of a sudden something weird was happening, he was being pushed to the back of the throat and forced down a small tube. He was being even more separated from his friends who where still being chewed. “oh Sophie and Gus” he cried out to his friends but as he was being forced further and further down, all that was left was the echo “oesophagus” (thus the name was invented).

After his forceful journey down the oesophagus, Al entered a bag like thing called the stomach, where he began to be churned around and he and his friends were even more separated as together the became chyme. Unfortunately this made Al feel a little sick.

“Great, More tubes” he thought to himself. It was now time to enter the intestines, first the smaller one and then the larger one. Fat Al was (quite a while later) sent to the pancreas, where he was washed with pancreatic juices. This caused Al to travel through the rivers of the blood stream and placed in parts of the body where other fat molecules were stored. Here he made new friends and lived happily ever after.

-**By Danielle Rais-**

This is the funniest story i've read in a long time. i was actually laughing while reading it. i think it's good how you've said all the different places AI went to before the bloodstream but you you talked about absorption without mentioning the word absorbtion. An important thing to remember is the role of **bile**. It is stored in the liver, and helps break down fats into fatty acids. Overall an awesome story. A+++ josh I did want you to write post comments in the discussion section but seeing as you have put it here we may as well go with this. VM Dannielle, your reference to the name oesophagus is very witty. I would like you to check the phrase "Fat Al was (quite a while later) sent to the pancreas," and see if you can improve this. Perhaps someone may give you hint. You should definitely take on board Josh's suggestions as well. VM doesnt it take like 4 hours to get through the intestines? thanks for the advice guys :) I'm going to have to agree with Josh, Dani. Very funny story. just one question; i thought the food gets absorbed into the cells of the intestine walls instead of being pushed by the pancreatic juices? or is that the same thing? LB Yes, LB you are right, well done again! VM


 * Memoirs of Mr. Fat** **26/03/08**

Dear Diary,

Today, the most amazing thing happened to me. I was digested!! Greatest experience of my life! I’ve never been digested before and when young Samuel put me in his mouth and started stabbing my school class with his canine teeth, I knew something awesome was about to happen…

First, as I already said, my teacher and friends were cut up and separated. At least I still had my closest friend with me and funnily enough also a girl I had a crush on in year 4. We were lubricated with a clear fluid called saliva and then swallowed. That was the last time I saw day light.

We fell down a tube called the oesophagus. It pushed us down by way of rhythmic contractions called peristalsis. I was singing to the beat as we went down. At the bottom of the oesophagus was a cardiac sphincter which let us through, and then we fell into the stomach. We were churned and flung around and then some gastric lipase broke my best friend away from me. I have to say, standing alone with my crush was a bit awkward. We were now fatty acid.

Out of the stomach, through the pyloric sphincter, and into the intestine we went. We only went as far as the duodenum when the pancreas expelled some pancreatic lipase. I could hear my classmates getting separated as they were broken down into fatty acid. At the bile duct, the liver sprayed us with bile and just as my soon-to-be-girlfriend and I were about to kiss, we were separated and turned into tiny fat droplets. I was then absorbed, all alone, out of the small intestine and into the cells that line the small intestine and transported into the blood stream. From there I was welcomed by a cell called Mr Skinny and now he is my best friend.


 * By Josh Appelboom**

Josh, your story contains some really good points. A couple of things to think about. Does the liver actually connect with the duodenum? Also, once fats have been broken down into fatty acids, would bile be of use any more? So you may want to think about the order of some of the events in the duodenum. VM But I have really enjoyed reading the two stories so far. VM

My name is Don. All my friends’ names are also Don as we are all molecules that reside inside chocolate donuts. Part of life involves the constant fear of going to that unknown place in which crazy things happen to us and other molecules. This is my greatest fear, ending up in this unknown mysterious place I’ve heard all about. On Tuesday the 25th of March, I felt my all surroundings move and disappear. I then realised that my greatest fear had come true. I was being eaten. I entered a dark place; I was assuming the mouth of this “alien”, and I heard crushing. My friends and I were being mechanical broking down by things we called teeth. We were then added to a gooey liquid substance, saliva, and we were then swallowed. We were forcibly pushed down a long tube by muscle contractions behind us. We then ended up in the stomach. In the stomach my fellow fat molecule friends and I were digested by enzymes call gastric lipase and turned into fatty acid. We were also churned around the inside of the stomach and we became chyme. (This is what they told me before they separated me from my friends). I then was thrown out of the stomach into a place called the small intestine. Inside the small intestine I was taken straight to the duodenum. The pancreas supplied the duodenum with an enzyme called pancreatic lipase which further breaks me down. I’m really small now. The pancreas also sends down bile, which it receives from the liver via the bile duct. Bile breaks fat, like myself, into really small fat droplets. As a small fat droplet I’m then absorbed into the bloodstream and stored in other locations as fat. Don, great story. Love the detailed description of the exact day that you entered the digestive system. Very accurate, if i may say so myself.. LB
 * Don the Fat molecule**
 * Don the Fat Molecule (Adam Karsz).**

“No!!” was the last words I said to Joe friend before I got absorbed into the bloodstream. You’re probably wondering what am I on about, well I will tell you. Im Nick and I am a fat molecule in a chocolate donut. I was enjoying the sunlight in the Coles window one sunny morning in Sydney when I got bought and taken home with some strange lady. I didn’t think much about it until, she opened her mouth and started chewing at me and my friends. We were so scared, screaming and shocked. My friend Joe who is quite a know it all started to talk to me as we were being coated with as he called “saliva”. “If my calculations are correct, after this stage with the saliva we should get pushed down the oesophagus”, Joe carried on. Yet I didn’t believe him, but soon enough I felt like I was on a roller coaster, slipping, sliding and getting pushed left, right and center down this long tube. This though wasn’t a safe roller coaster ride. We fell into a huge J shaped organ. Joe shouter across to me, “This is called the Stomach, we are going to get churned around and chemically digested into a mixture called chyme. So hold on Nick!” I held on to Joe for my life! Just when I thought it would all be over I soon found out that it was not going to be over soon. Joe and I were still together and he kept on saying all these weird things like ,”Pepsin! Gastric lipase!” I didn’t want to know what he was on about. “We are now getting sent down into the small intestine, it’s a long tube. The first part of the small intestine is called the Duodenum. Inside the duodenum we should find the Pancreas. Close your eyes Nick, you don’t want to get any pancreatic juices into you eyes.” Joe continued. We quickly got squirted and layered with more things called “enzymes” I started to lose all my baby fat. Joe and I were still together for as he called the “large intestine”. This is where we both got absorbed into the bloodstream. I miss the old days with the rest of the fat donut gang, but its great here in the bloodstream helping around the place.


 * By LR**

Good stuff lauren i like it alot. Referance to baby fat was superb! Its good how you described the shape of the stomach and talked about pepsin, gastric lipase and all the other enzymes. just a couple of pointers: im pretty sure you get absorbed in the small intestine instead of the large intestine and the fat molecule wont really stay in the blood stream, it will be taken to a cell that needs its. A+++. Josh I think this is Lisa's story, Josh but your comment referring to the region where absortion of fat occurs is spot on. VM

It was a day I will never forget. I was just hanging with my friends on the beach, lying on a towel in the sun when a girl picked us all up and put us in her mouth! I didn’t know what to think at first and even before I could open my mouth to scream, these sharp objects started mechanically breaking me and my friends up. I grabbed onto my best friend quickly and we held each other tight as this gooey substance called saliva started pouring all over us, softening and breaking us up even more. We were then moved to the back of the throat and a wave of muscles pushed us down this long tube named the oesophagus and continued pushing us down by peristalsis. At the end of the oesophagus we went through the cardiac sphincter and fell into a J shaped object where my friends and I began to get churned up by gastric lipase. In the process I got dragged away from my best friend and was transformed into a fatty acid. My friends and I were now a part of something called chyme. I went through the pyloric sphincter and then found myself in a place inside the small intestine called the duodenum. I was then mixed with pancreatic enzymes and bile, which had travelled from the liver, into the gall bladder then into the small intestine. I looked down and I saw that I was getting thinner and smaller and my first instinct was that all this travelling had made me lose some weight, but as my new friends later told me, the bile had caused this effect. Then suddenly I was absorbed into the wall of the small intestine! I found myself in the bloodstream, surrounded by many new faces and friends to make.


 * By Bec Neufeld**

Great story Bec. I liked the reference to losing weight by travelling so far. Very factual, but once absorbed into bloodstream the fat moves to other places of the body, doesnt't just stay there (I think). Adam

Love the story Bec it's cute! You made really good references, just one thing im not sure about are you saying that the pancreatic enzymes and the bile both travelled from the liver and gall bladder? I might just be reading it wrong but yeh. Great story. Mikayla W

Ever had that feeling when you feel like you’re failing a never ending battle? Let me tell you how it happened to me.

Oh, before I do that I should probably introduce myself. My name is Oli, but everybody calls me oil because I’m ‘come with a heavy price’. I’m best described as a fatty liquid but some people just say I’m great for comfort and for those times that people have big nights, people say I’m a savoir the next morning. But now that I’ve told you about me, you can now understand how I got into a horrible state.

It was a Monday morning, and I was being gobbled down on my usual toast when I started feeling as if I was falling apart. I literally felt as if I was breaking down. I felt a gooey, sticky, thick liquid I think they call it __Saliva__ that helped push me down, but whatever it was, it was sickening! I moved through a pipe, the __oesophagus__ it was a comfy fit, not much room in there especially with all the bread that was eating up so quickly as well! I couldn’t see because it was dark in there, but when we reached the end of the tunnel we reached a door type thing named a __Sphincter__. The sphincter welcomed us into the __stomach__, where we were cleaned. We spun around and around. There was something that felt like detergent breaking us up, the __gastric lipase__. Slowly, part of me was being broken down, into smaller and smaller pieces. I was told that my ‘complex molecules’ were being made into ‘simpler molecules’. I was taken straight to the duodenum from there. It was awesome and warm in there, until another substance, this time __pancreatic lipase__ was used to break me down further. It was obvious that I was fighting a tough bunch here. It was only after this that the __Bile__ came, through the duct that I knew the worst was yet to come. The bile was a sticky green substance that was supposed to ‘emulsify’ me. I came to my final destination after that, well part of me anyway. The most part of me made it to the __bloodstream__ where it could finally have a home inside some unfamiliar cells, but some tiny part of me was allowed to exit this new, unfamiliar world I now living and enjoy the sunlight outside.
 * __Olivia Sandler__**

Nice story Oli but like some of the others, the order of events in the duodenum needs to be looked at. That is bile is not going to have much of an effect if the lipids are already broken down into their smallest unit of fatty acids. VM

_ Once there was a girl called Dee She was a very fat girl, you see She had a fat little nose And fat little toes And liked to drink lemon tea -- One day when she went to eat She sat on her favourite seat She puckered her lips Gathered some dips And chewed at some juicy meat (and donut) (And chewed on a donut treat) --- Her teeth chomped at the meal And then she started to feel And thick gooey juice Then it was set loose Down the oesophagus wheel -- Now this wheel was rather a tube That was a very comfortable move For her fatty parts Who didn’t play darts But moved onto the stomach via lube (and the sphincter) -- Dee gazed at her meal with delight As her fatty parts took a flight Through her tummy; a phase Helped by gastric lipase And perhaps broken down by the night -- Straight to the duodenum they went Though not much time was spent Before pancreatic lipases Pushed the particles away, as droplets split...lest we forget -- That the liver that sent some bile Which took a sticky green while Before entering the cells In the small intestine, and Well It travelled to the blood for a while -- From the blood more cells it entered As Dee thought of food to venture It waiting a bit Whilst she took more dip To the last stop, digestion had ended! -- Suddenly, Dee sat up Placing down her unfinished cup She ran to dunny Thought of her mummy And excreted her waste…yuk! --- Dee then walked to her bed Feeling tired and feeling dead She tucked herself in Couldn’t help but grin When she thought of being fed

By LB (by the way Josh, my surname starts with B not R) Highly creative LB, although you didn't mention donut. You need to check the phrase "sent to pancreas". Does food end up in the pancreas? VM Not sure if I confused you so I have rewritten that line. Feel free to alter it if you don't like it. Still marvelling at your creativity though. :-) VM am i close? (forgot to mention donut) LB

Bass this is awesome, So creative. Just one thing, doesnt the bile break down the fat molecule before the pancreatic lipase does, I'm not sure but yeh I think that's how it goes. Well it's a really good poem. Mikayla W Bass, i love your creativity! damn you! a really good idea, great work. LA

We have a legend down here on our planet chocolate donut, but normally with legends they don't come true.... My name is lippy im one of the many donutians that live on planet chocolate donut, we are otherwise known as fat molecules.

It all happened on one bright sunny afternoon, I was sitting with my friends when all of a sudden our planet started to shake and move. It was rather scary so my friends and I packed together as tightly as we could! I could feel these things in what the legend called "teeth" trying to break us up but we held on for dear life! We were covered in this gobby stuff which was called saliva. We started being pushed back by, what I thought looked alot like an animal on planet donut called a tongue, towards this huge black hole. kind of like the centre of our planet, we called that an oesophagus. This oesophagus started pushing us down in a wave like movement it kinda reminded me of a ride we used to go on called peristallsis.

We then came to a gate, at the top of it, it said Cardiac Sphincter: caution gastric acids ahead, this was the part of the legend that scared me the most. All of a sudden the gate opened. We went rushing into this sack like thing which my closest friend said that it was called a stomach. As if getting covered in saliva wasnt enough we were mixed with this stuff called gastric lipase and other enzymes within the Chyme, it was disgusting! The churning and mixing was making me feel sick and I had noticed that some of my friends were missing.

We came to a stop I looked up and... another gate. Oh no! I looked at my friend where were we going now I asked him. The gate said on it Pyloric Sphincter: Behold the wonders of the small intestine. The legend didn't say anything about that but I didn't think it could be worse than where I was before. After what felt like days of waiting the gate finally opened. We went in and passed a sign saying welcome to the duodenum. This place was nice and comfortable I would have been quite happy staying here, until this green icky stuff started coming in, I realised that this was the part of the legend that people didn't want to hear, the bile duct, from the gall bladder was sending in BILE! I knew this was the time to say goodbye I would probably never see my friends again, we were emulsified and they were gone. I was too upset to notice that the this yellow thing called the pancreas was covering me in pancreatic lipases, before I knew it, I not only had lost my friends but half my body too... I was then sucked in by these protruding things called the villi and absorbed into the blood stream, where I was placed with other fat molecules which I had never met before. I have made some amazing friends but I will never forget planet chocolate donut.
 * MW**

Great story MW, not only imaginative but highly accurate as well. VM


 * The Adventures of Molly Phat**

Some like to call it a ‘bucket of grease’, others, a whole lot of delicious fat and oil. I call it a Donut – my habitat, made up of mee. Lots of me in fact, you see, I'm a molecule – a fat one, surrounded by many more fat molecules. I sit at the edge of the group, while all the other fat molecules bunch up awkwardly in a large circle. I don’t like the others; they’re bullies. I don’t understand, aren’t we all the same? Don’t think I'm some antisocial loser, or anything, I have a reason for my ‘strategy’... Well, every time a consumer takes a bite out of the donut, I never get eaten. I'm like that tiny crumb that’s always left behind. I don’t know what it’s like to have those teeth mechanically separate us lipids; I don’t know what it’s like to be forced to the back of the mouth and down the throat, with the assistance of that gooey liquid, called saliva, (which I often witness dribbling down the sides of a consumer’s mouth - an amusing site.) Because of my genius strategy, the other lipids constantly make fun of me and tease me.

One day, however, something changed everything… Just after some hundreds and thousands were sprinkled upon us, and the consumer took his first bite, the remaining fat molecules realised what I was up to, hence decided not to let me get away with it this time. They cornered me and forced me forward to be next in line in entering that dark smelly mouth, while beat-boxing and chanting the regular: “Phat pha-phat pha-phat phat..Molly Phat, you think you’re real cool; but really, you’re just another fat molecule.”

So there I was, being mechanically broken apart from the donut form, into smaller lots of lipids, via those large yellow teeth, followed by a loud swallow. I was terrified at first, but I must admit it I was more amused by the site of Tim and Tam – the popular couple of the fat molecules – being separated from one another for good.

I experienced the peristalsis roller-coaster ride down the oesophagus for only 3 seconds, before I entered the stomach. Now this made me sick, I tell you. Still bunched up to a few other fat molecules, we were chemically further broken down by gastric lipase enzymes, while unpleasantly being churned around in circles like a washing machine. Together we formed a soft semi-fluid mixture called chyme - team work! I was so relieved when we were eventually released from that J-shaped organ, however, I really did not want to know what was yet to come on this reeking unfamiliar journey of mine. I came across the next stage: the peristalsis ride, yet again, through the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine. There, I was mashed by bile from the liver, that also produced duodenum enzymes. By this point, all of us originally fat molecules had become fatty acids and glycerol, by the duodenum enzymes. Ultimately, me, Molly Phat, and my brutal digestion adventure, had come to an end. Ugh.


 * LA**

Sitting on a shelf at donut king, one of many molecules making up a donut, like a chip in a pack of Pringles, dreaming to be eaten. Calling to every passer by, “ eat me”… “eat me.” The thought of one day having a bite taken out of the donut and I will be freed of those annoying molecules that I have been stuck with for so long and let loose in digestive theme park, the teeth biting down making the groups of us smaller and smaller so we can have more freedom. Then the saliva pool that leads up to the oesophagus slide. This new technology that uses pressure jets (muscles) to push us down. This would be so exhausting that we would go through the gates called the cardiac sphincter to get some food in stomach world were we had some delicious enzymes, gastric lipase flavoured, yummy. We would be so full after that we now would be fatty acids, but there is no way we would miss out on the big churner, the mother of all rides, legends say that its like a washing machine. It is said that that makes you so sick that you become chyme! Now every one would be completely separated. The exit gates to leave the stomach are called pyloric sphincter into the duodenum where I will meet some enzymes who live in the pancreas called pancreatic lipase, I am a little nervous because I have heard tat they are not very nice and that they are mean and are going to break me down even more. Then I want to do a gym class in the intestine. The class is taken by bile from the liver. I have heard that they do a killer class that can break you down to small fatty drops. The best part is after that!! I catch the blood stream express to my new home.

MIKAYLA GREEN!! (yay i finally figured out how 2 use the space :P)