A Year 4 class from Icknield Walk First School in Royston have visited the town’s Greneway Middle School to experience science in a big lab as part of their topic ‘animals as humans’.

Willing volunteers had ‘organs’ stuck to their bodies to show where the different ones fit, followed by a live demonstration of the journey Mrs Hodge’s breakfast makes from start to finish.

The banana and Weetabix made it’s way through the mouth – which, for the purpose of the demonstration was a pestle and mortar and a funnel – to a plastic tube ‘oesophagus’ before entering the stomach - made from a plastic bag.

There, acid and enzymes were added and it was pulped before entering the small intestine – which was one leg of a pair of tights.

This is where things started to get really messy as food was absorbed through the intestine wall, or dripped on the floor, before entering the the foot of the tights - the large intestine and finally the rectum.

A school spokeswoman said: “After that we performed an autopsy on an unsuspecting volunteer to check out their digestive system to see if that was the cause of death.

“Fortunately the children survived the procedure and were all able to return to Icknield Walk unscathed buzzing with excitement of their visit to see real science!”