A Natural History of Waste: teacher key

Poop and Pee, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. From the gut and kidneys to wombat cubes, John Snow's map and London's sewers, here is how bodies and cities deal with waste, and what is still being worked out.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What evidence did John Snow use?
   • A model intestine
   • A weather chart
   • Household interviews, a map of deaths and a comparison of water companies (answer)
2. What do nephrons do in the three jobs that make pee?
   • Make bile, store it, and release it
   • Filter, take back useful things, and add wastes (answer)
   • Churn, squeeze, and absorb
3. Why did Snow's map of cholera deaths matter more for proof than for the cure?
   • It showed deaths clustered at one pump, but the outbreak had mostly passed before the handle came off (answer)
   • It showed the pump had been closed before anyone got sick
   • It showed that bad air was the cause
4. What was Snow's water company comparison called?
   • A miasma test
   • A natural experiment, because the companies decided who got which water (answer)
   • A sewer survey
5. What was miasma?
   • A kind of filter
   • A poisonous vapour that many doctors blamed for disease (answer)
   • A muscle

Words

• peristalsis: gut squeezing waves
• microbiome: gut bacteria community
• secretion: adding wastes
• nephrons: tiny kidney filters
• miasma: bad air