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Lactic Acid Fermentation Explorer

Run the Lactic Acid Fermentation Explorer MicroSim Fullscreen
Edit in the p5.js Editor

About This MicroSim

  • Visualizes the lactic acid fermentation branch of cellular respiration with four sequential stages: glucose uptake, glycolysis, pyruvate accumulation, and lactate production.
  • Highlights how NADH recycles to NAD⁺, allowing glycolysis to continue producing ATP when muscle tissue is in oxygen debt.
  • Summarizes key outputs (lactate waste, net 2 ATP) and introduces representative fermenters such as muscle cells, red blood cells, and Lactobacillus.

How to Use

  1. Press Start Simulation to auto-step through each stage; use Previous and Next for manual control or pause with Pause Simulation.
  2. Click any stage card to jump directly to that step for review.
  3. Toggle Show Oxygen Restored to compare anaerobic vs reoxygenated conditions (mode strip updates the ETC status).
  4. Adjust Auto Step Delay to set the autoplay pace.
  5. Click an organism chip to pause the sim and read its lactic fermentation fun fact in the footer of the organism row.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

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<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/biology/sims/lactic-fermentation-explorer/main.html"
        height="810px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Grade Level

9-12 (High School Biology)

Duration

10-15 minutes

Prerequisites

TODO: List prerequisites.

Activities

  1. Exploration (5 min): TODO
  2. Guided Practice (5 min): TODO
  3. Assessment (5 min): TODO

Assessment

TODO: List assessment criteria.

References

  1. TODO: Add references.