The Digestive System – A Journey Through Our Knitted Guts

Let’s be honest – the digestive system is not the nicest thing to teach. The very thought of what goes on inside our guts is enough to make most students squirm. That’s why we have our knitted gut.

It’s life-size, soft, pleasant to touch, and best of all, it gives students a real sense of scale. I can pull out between 5–6 metres of small intestine from the model, and students can drape it around themselves to see just how much of it there is and where it all goes.

The journey starts with the tongue.
Students always protest: “My tongue isn’t that big!” Then they see the stomach and say: “My stomach isn’t that small!” – until I explain that, although small, it can expand to hold quite a bit.

Next, the students measure the liver. It’s surprisingly large, stretching right across the body. Nestled alongside is the pancreas, both of which are crucial to digestion.

• The liver does one job for digestion: it produces bile, which is carried by the bile duct.

• The stomach has two jobs: it produces pepsin (released first as pepsinogen) to start protein digestion, and it produces acid to kill off bacteria.

• The pancreas is a multitasker: it produces three enzymes – lipase to break down fats, carbohydrase for carbohydrates, and trypsin (made first as trypsinogen) to continue protein digestion.

From there, everything moves into the small intestine, with its villi to absorb nutrients, past the appendix, and into the large intestine, where water is absorbed. Finally, it travels through the rectum and out of the anus – cue the usual giggles.

The knitted gut turns what might be a repulsive topic into something students can see, touch, and laugh about – while still learning how remarkable their bodies really are.