Activity 1 - Energy and Oxygen

This exercise is designed to help you understand what we mean by energy and the role that oxygen has in releasing energy. Answer the following questions on your activity journal sheet.

1. What do we mean by fuel?  Think about gasoline in a car.
2. What happens when gasoline is burned inside the engine?  What is in the air that makes gasoline burn?
3. What are the two forms of energy that you get from burning gasoline in a car engine? [Hints:  Why is the hood of the car hot after you have been driving a long time?   Where does the force come from that turns the wheels?]
4. How is the burning of gasoline in car engines similar to burning of glucose in foods? [Hints:  The chemical source of energy is similar.  The products of combustion are the same.]
5. What is NOT the same about the burning of gasoline in a car engine and burning of glucose in foods? [Hints: Could your body stand the heat of a car engine?  How might the body adjust a fuel burning process so that there would not be so much energy lost as heat?]
6. What part of air does our body need? Why do we need it?
7. Why do animals that live in low-oxygen environments, such as worms buried in the earth or mud at the bottom of the ocean, have less bodily activity than other animals.

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