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Coffee and Your Brain

Middle school learnscience.org

Name Date

Predict

Many adults drink coffee in the morning to wake up. Coffee has a chemical in it called caffeine. Does the caffeine in coffee give your body energy?

Circle one. Yes / No

Why?

Watch

  1. Coffee doesn’t give you energyyoutube.com/shorts/qIIaPqW8qkk

Word of the day

Adenosine (uh-DEN-uh-seen). A molecule found in all living cells. In the brain, adenosine builds up while you’re awake and helps signal that you’re tired.

Word partComes fromMeaning
aden-Greek adḗngland
-os-ribosea kind of sugar
-ineFrench and Latinan ending for chemical names
  • Your adenoids, at the top of your throat, have the same aden- root.
  • Caffeine has the same -ine ending. Its name comes from café, the French word for coffee.

Bonus word. Receptor (rih-SEP-tur). A protein on a cell with a spot, like a seat, that one kind of molecule fits into. The word comes from Latin and is related to the word receive.

Questions

  1. Your brain uses energy all day long. Adenosine is a leftover from the brain’s energy use, and it builds up while you are awake. As adenosine builds up, what message does it send your brain?

    Hint. Think about how you feel at the end of a long day.

  2. Adenosine sends its message by fitting into receptors on brain cells. In the video, Raven says caffeine is shaped enough like adenosine to sit in the same receptors. What happens to the tired message when caffeine takes adenosine’s seat?

    Circle one. The tired message gets stronger / The tired message gets blocked / The adenosine turns into energy

    Hint. Caffeine fits in the receptor, but caffeine doesn’t send the tired message.

  3. In the video, Raven says adenosine keeps building up while caffeine sits in the receptors. What happens when the caffeine finally leaves adenosine’s receptors?

    Hint. Think about all the adenosine that was waiting for a receptor.

  4. When you drink coffee, caffeine moves from your small intestine into your blood. Your blood carries caffeine to your brain and your heart. Name two body systems that caffeine travels through or changes.

    Hint. Follow the caffeine from your mouth to your brain. Which body systems move the caffeine along the way?

Exit ticket

In the video, Raven says coffee is not giving you energy. What does the caffeine in coffee do in your brain instead?

Hint. Think about adenosine and its receptors. What does caffeine do when it sits in a receptor?

Sources