The Microbiome:
Food, Fiber and Fitness
Driving Question: How do food choices and the environment affect the gut microbiome in humans?
By the end of this lesson, we hope that you have learned:
A healthy gut microbiome is a diverse, complex ecosystem.
The foods you eat feed your microbiome, and your microbiome thrives on fiber.
Diet can affect your microbiome in ways that can increase or decrease the likelihood of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases
Open the Student Handout The Microbiome: Food, Fiber, and Fitness. Answer the questions as you progress through each step.
Need to Know: The microbiome is a relatively new field of study and area of research. Changes in the microbiome have been associated with metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, as well as linked to mental health, autism, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and many more conditions. This complex topic leads to many questions, including an important one about causation: Do certain diseases change the microbiome, and/or does a change in the microbiome play a role in causing to the disease? While scientists are working on this question right now, we don’t have many solid answers.
Credits: This lesson is based on a presentation by Cecilia Noecker, PhD, University of Washington. Special thanks to Alex Eng, PhD, and the following teachers:
Jim Christian, Colville High School, Colville, WA
Amy Hoffman, Kingston High School, Kingston, WA
Lenore Kop, W. R. Farrington High School, Honolulu, HI
Valerie Merrill, Redmond High School, Redmond WA
Dawn Rubstello, Roosevelt High School, Seattle, WA
Loren Shaw, Glide High School, Glide, OR
Next Generation Science Standards: This lesson contributes to student competency in the following Performance Expectations of the NGSS:
HS-LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-2: Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
HS-LS2-6: Evaluate claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem
HS-LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
HS-LS4-6: Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.
Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models: Students are introduced to the very complex system of the microbiome. Students model perturbations to the system by first conducting a random simulation, and then affecting change to the outcome in a second simulation.
Stability and Change: Change and rates of change to the microbiome are quantified and modeled by students under two conditions.
Science and Engineering Practices
Analyzing and Interpreting Data: Students collect and analyze data on the outcomes of the system perturbations. Students analyze and categorize components of a published complex system network.
Engaging in Argument from Evidence: Students evaluate a dietary claim on the benefits of fiber by gathering evidence of the effects of butyrate on the gut microbiome.