Master Teacher

Garrison Hall

Time Allotment

45 minutes

Overview

Using video and the Internet, this lesson further explores the human respiratory system. After a review of its parts and functions, students will gain insight by watching an animated video on the exchange of gases in the lungs.

(Note to Teacher: Garrison Hall's other lesson, Not Just a Bag of Air, should be done before this lesson. CO₂ Blow Out! builds upon the information introduced in that lesson.)

Subject Matter

Science and Health

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Determine that carbon dioxide is a gas that is given off during respiration;
• Determine that oxygen is the gas that is absorbed during respiration;
• Determine the air capacity of the lungs.

South Carolina Standards

(These Standards are available online at http://www.myscschools.com.)

Science

a.    Label the parts and distinguish among the functions of the major organs of the respiratory system, including nose/mouth, larynx, trachea, bronchi, alveoli, lungs, and diaphragm.

Math

a. Develop and describe strategies
for estimating the area and perimeters, areas, and volumes of irregular shapes.

National Standards

(These Standards are available online at http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/.)

Science

The human organism has systems for respiration and circulation. These systems interact with each other.

Math

Apply appropriate techniques, tools, and formulas to determine measurements.

Media Components

Video

Oxygen: What a Gas!, Lesson 2: "The Breath of Life," explores the biology of oxygen via human respiration and circulation.

Web Sites

How Your Lungs Work
http://science.howstuffworks.com/lung
A great Web site with diagrams, function of parts, and diseases of the respiratory system. A page from this site will be used in the Introductory Activity.

Kids Health-Lungs
http://kidshealth.org/kid/body/lungs_nosw.html
Another site you can use that is child appropriate with pictures.

Brain Pop: Respiratory System
http://brainpop.com/health/respiratory/respiration.index.weml
You can watch a movie and then answer a quiz about the respiratory system.

(Note to Teacher: Great site but there is a fee per year-$79.00 per family and $134.00 per school. The Macromedia plug-in is required. Go to http://www.macromedia.com.)

Your Respiratory System
http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/flash/body/pg000138.html
This site talks about why we need to breathe and how we do it.

Materials

Per student:

For class demonstration:

Equipment

Prep for Teachers

efore Activity 1, "C0₂  Blow Out!," make a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide (lime) by adding small amounts of the solid powder, a little at a time, to warm water while stirring, until no more solid dissolves. Pour into cups for each student.

Before Activity 2, "I Blew it!-Lung Capacity Demonstration":

1. Calibrate the large jar by filling it with water, liter by liter, and making the water level with a marker or masking tape.

2. Fill the gallon jar completely full and the aquarium ¾ full with water.

3. Place 3 flat stones of the same
thickness (or other heavy objects) on the bottom of the aquarium and invert the gallon jar into the water- filled aquarium so that it rests on the 3 stones.

4. Insert one end of the plastic hose under the mouth of the gallon jar and let the other end hang over the rim of the aquarium.

Cue as an introduction to the lesson

http://science.howstuffworks.com/lung1.htm

to have on screen for identifying the parts of the respiratory system. When you get to the page, scroll down to diagram. Bookmark this site.

Cue the videotape: The segment starts at the beginning just after the opening title. A man is comes into view climbing a snowy mountain. The narrator says, "The oxidation that takes place within us gives us the energy of life."

When using media, provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.

Introductory Activity

Step 1: Say, "Every minute we breathe in, 13 pints of air go into our lungs. Today we will see what happens inside our lungs during this exchange of gases."

Step 2: Go to the bookmarked Web site http://science.howstuffworks.com/lung1.htm. (Note to Teacher: A diagram in a book or a poster may be substituted.)

Step 3: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by telling them to watch as you review the parts of the respiratory system. Point to the image on the computer screen and review the parts of the respiratory system. (Note to Teacher: This leads directly into Step 1 of the Learning Activities.)

Learning Activities

Step 1: Say, "The air has a long journey to get to your lungs. It flows down through the windpipe, past the voice box or vocal cords, to where the lowermost ribs meet the center of your chest.

"There, your windpipe divides into two tubes which lead to the two lungs which fill most of your ribcage. Inside each of your sponge-like lungs, tubes, called bronchi, branch into even smaller tubes much like the branches of a tree. Your lungs contain almost 1500 miles of these airways.

"At the end of each of these tubes are small air sacs called alveoli. Your lungs have over 300 million alveoli. Spread out flat, all the air sacs in the lungs of an adult would cover an area about the third of a tennis court.

"Capillaries, which are small blood vessels with thin walls, are wrapped around these alveoli. The walls are so thin and close to each other that the air easily seeps through. In this way, oxygen seeps through into the bloodstream and carbon dioxide, in the bloodstream, seeps through into the alveoli, and is then removed from the body when we breathe out."

Step 2: Say, "Today we will see how oxygen is exchanged in the lungs with carbon dioxide

Step 3: Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction by saying: "Watch as we look inside this out-of-breath mountain climber's lungs. Watch how the climber's lungs work."

Step 4: START the tape at the beginning where the narrator says, "The oxidation that takes place within us gives us the energy of life." On the screen you will see a mountain climber climbing over a snow bank.

Step 5: PAUSE after narrator says, ".it's a chain of events when we breathe air into our lungs." He will still be on screen. Review how the lungs work.

Step 6: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by telling them watch what the lungs are like.

PLAY the videotape and PAUSE after the narrator says, .rushes in." Point out the lungs, bronchial tubes, and where the diaphragm would be.

Step 7: To check for comprehension, ak: "What are the lungs like? (a pair of bellows that suck in and out)

Step 8: Say, "When the lungs expand they create a low pressure and air from the outside goes in. When they contract, a high pressure is created and air is blown out. Remind them what objects are at the end of the bronchi. (air sacs-alveoli)

Step 9: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by asking them to watch for what surrounds the alveoli and how many alveoli each lung contains.

Step 10: RESUME PLAY and PAUSE after narrator says, "Each lung contains 300 million alveoli."

Step 11: Ask, "What surrounds the alveoli? (capillaries) Now ask, "How many alveoli are in each lung?" (300 million)

Step 12: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by telling them to notice how the oxygen is absorbed and the carbon dioxide is released.

Step 13: PLAY the video and PAUSE and keep picture on screen after narrator says, "With each breath out, carbon dioxide molecules, the waste products of energy used, move across the membrane in the opposite direction and are blown out."

Step 14: Say, "The red blood cells show up at the sacs at just the right time, ready to trade in old carbon dioxide that your body's cells have made for some new oxygen you've just breathed in. In the process, these red blood cells turn from purple to red as they start carrying the oxygen to all the cells in your body."

Step 15: Say, "The carbon dioxide goes through the lungs, back up the windpipe and out with every exhalation."

Step 16: Point out on the screen how the carbon dioxide is coming from the purple part of the capillary and the oxygen is absorbing into the red part.

Step 17: STOP the video and say, "We are going to capture some of that carbon dioxide with our first activity."

Culminating Activities

Activity 1: "C0₂  Blow Out!-

Discovering Carbon Dioxide in Your Breath"

Step 1: Introduce the activity by saying that carbon dioxide can be indicated with lime water.

Step 2: Model the procedure then have students do the same. Remind them to blow through the straw and not suck up any of the lime water.

1. Insert straw into cup of saturated lime water.

2. Blow till water becomes cloudy.

Step 3: Say: "The gas given off during the respiration process is carbon dioxide. The tiny air sacs in the lungs exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide. What is taking place is an acid/base reaction. The calcium hydroxide solution is basic. Carbon dioxide is acidic and turns the solution cloudy. We breathe out carbon dioxide as a waste product."

Activity 2: "I Blew It! Lung Capacity Demonstration"

Step 1: Introduce this demonstration to show how much air is in our lungs.

1. Ask for a volunteer to test his/her lung capacity and one volunteer to assist.

2. The assistant will hold the inverted jar steady while the other volunteer exhales through the tube after inhaling as deeply as possible.

3. Measure the volume of exhaled air in the jar. Read off the volume of air in the jar.

Step 2: By inhaling as deeply as we can, we fill our lungs full with air. When we blow all the air out through the tube and catch this exhaled air in the jar above the water, the volume or capacity of our lungs can be measured. A spirometer is an instrument used for measuring lung capacity.

Cross-Curricular Extensions

Language Arts: Have students create a PowerPoint presentation on the respiratory system.

Technology: Have students create a "Web site" using pictures, animations, and information from the Internet.

Math: Each student blows up a balloon with one breath. The student then submerges it in a displacement container made from an aquarium filled with water. When the water is displaced, it will spill into a graduated cylinder. The measurement in the cylinder will be the volume of their lung capacity. This information may be graphed.

Community Connections

• The alveoli are particularly susceptible to infection. Bacteria and viruses find them a perfect place to grow. This accounts for the tendency for a chest cold or other lung problems to advance into pneumonia. Invite a doctor or a nurse to come in and speak about the respiratory system. Focus could be on diseases and prevention of diseases involving the lungs.
• DARE Officer could speak about the problems smoking and drugs can cause the lungs.
• Hold a mini-health information conference created by students using PowerPoint presentations on the different body systems. It would be open to the community on a PTO night as a way of involving the community. Perhaps ask local physicians/nurses to volunteer as guest speakers.