This booklet belongs to ______________________________.
It provides
a knowledge about the complex process associated with the
lungs and creates a variety of learning activities to stimulate the
interest and encourage the active participation of students.
It is hoped that this booklet will provide the required knowledge
to students to help them understand about the lungs in their body
and how they function.
Hope that you find it useful and rewarding.
ENJOY!
Information in booklet has been sourced from websites
such as [Link],
[Link] and [Link].
THINK! THINK! THINK!
What's something that you do all day, every day, no matter where you are or who
you're with?
(a) think about what's for lunch tomorrow
(b) put your finger in your nose
(c) hum your favourite song
(d) breathe
It's possible that some kids could say (a) or (c) or that others might even say —
yikes! — (b). But every single person in the world has to say (d). Breathing air is
necessary for keeping humans (and many animals) alive. And the two parts that are
large and in charge when it comes to breathing? If you guessed your lungs, you're
right!
Your lungs make up one of the largest organs in your body, and they work with
your respiratory system to allow you to take in fresh air, get rid of stale air, and
even talk.
Locate Those Lungs
Your lungs are in your chest, and they are so large that they take up most of the
space in there. You have two lungs, but they aren't the same size the way your eyes
or nostrils are. Instead, the lung on the left side of your body is a bit smaller than
the lung on the right. This extra space on the left leaves room for your heart.
Your lungs are protected by your rib cage, which is made up of 12 sets of ribs.
These ribs are connected to your spine in your back and go around your lungs to
keep them safe. Beneath the lungs is the diaphragm (say: DY-uh-fram), a dome-
shaped muscle that works with your lungs to allow you to inhale (breathe in) and
exhale (breathe out) air.
You can't see your lungs, but it's easy to feel them in action: Put your hands on
your chest and breathe in very deeply. You will feel your chest getting slightly
bigger. Now breathe out the air, and feel your chest return to its regular size.
You've just felt the power of your lungs!
Create your own drawing of the lungs.
A Look Inside the Lungs
From the outside, lungs are pink and a bit squishy, like a sponge. But the inside
contains the real lowdown on the lungs! At the bottom of the trachea (say: TRAY-
kee-uh), or windpipe, there are two large tubes. These tubes are called the main
stem bronchi (say: BRONG-kye), and one heads left into the left lung, while the
other heads right into the right lung.
Each main stem bronchus (say: BRONG-kuss) — the name for just one of the
bronchi — then branches off into tubes, or bronchi, that get smaller and even
smaller still, like branches on a big tree. The tiniest tubes are
called bronchioles (say: BRONG-kee-oles), and there are about 30,000 of them in
each lung. Each bronchiole is about the same thickness as a hair.
At the end of each bronchiole is a special area that leads into clumps of teeny tiny
air sacs called alveoli (say: al-VEE-oh-lie). There are about 600 million alveoli in
your lungs and if you stretched them out, they would cover an entire tennis court.
Now that's a load of alveoli! Each alveolus (say: al-VEE-oh-luss) — what we call
just one of the alveoli — has a mesh-like covering of very small blood vessels
called capillaries (say: CAP-ill-er-ees). These capillaries are so tiny that the cells
in your blood need to line up single file just to march through them.
All About Inhaling
When you're walking your dog, cleaning your room, or
spiking a volleyball, you probably don't think about inhaling
(breathing in) — you've got other things on your mind! But
every time you inhale air, dozens of body parts work together
to help get that air in there without you ever thinking about it.
As you breathe in, your diaphragm contracts and flattens out. This allows it to
move down, so your lungs have more room to grow larger as they fill up with air.
"Move over, diaphragm, I'm filling up!" is what your lungs would say. And the
diaphragm isn't the only part that gives your lungs the room they need. Your rib
muscles also lift the ribs up and outward to give the lungs more space.
At the same time, you inhale air through your mouth and nose, and the air heads
down your trachea, or windpipe. On the way down the windpipe, tiny hairs
called cilia (say: SILL-ee-uh) move gently to keep mucus and dirt out of the lungs.
The air then goes through the series of branches in your lungs, through the bronchi
and the bronchioles.
Thank You, Alveoli!
The air finally ends up in the 600 million alveoli. As these millions of alveoli fill
up with air, the lungs get bigger. Remember that experiment where you felt your
lungs get larger? Well, you were really feeling the power of those awesome
alveoli!
It's the alveoli that allow oxygen from the air to pass into your blood. All the cells
in the body need oxygen every minute of the day. Oxygen passes through the walls
of each alveolus into the tiny capillaries that surround it. The oxygen enters the
blood in the tiny capillaries, hitching a ride on red blood cells and traveling
through layers of blood vessels to the heart. The heart then sends the oxygenated
(filled with oxygen) blood out to all the cells in the body.
Waiting to Exhale
When it's time to exhale (breathe out), everything happens in reverse: Now it's the
diaphragm's turn to say, "Move it!" Your diaphragm relaxes and moves up,
pushing air out of the lungs. Your rib muscles become relaxed, and your ribs move
in again, creating a smaller space in your chest.
By now your cells have used the oxygen they need, and your blood is carrying
carbon dioxide and other wastes that must leave your body. The blood comes back
through the capillaries and the wastes enter the alveoli. Then you breathe them out
in the reverse order of how they came in — the air goes through the bronchioles,
out the bronchi, out the trachea, and finally out through your mouth and nose.
The air that you breathe out not only contains wastes and carbon dioxide, but it's
warm, too! As air travels through your body, it picks up heat along the way. You
can feel this heat by putting your hand in front of your mouth or nose as you
breathe out. What is the temperature of the air that comes out of your mouth or
nose?
With all this movement, you might be wondering why things don't get stuck as the
lungs fill and empty! Luckily, your lungs are covered by two really slick special
layers called pleural (say: PLOO-ral)membranes. These membranes are separated
by a fluid that allows them to slide around easily while you inhale and exhale.
Discover how to construct a working model of the lungs.
Materials Needed:
Instructions:
Time for Talk
Your lungs are important for breathing . . . and also for talking! Above the trachea
(windpipe) is the larynx (say: LAIR-inks), which is sometimes called the voice
box. Across the voice box are two tiny ridges called vocal cords, which open and
close to make sounds. When you exhale air from the lungs, it comes through the
trachea and larynx and reaches the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are closed and
the air flows between them, the vocal cords vibrate and a sound is made.
The amount of air you blow out from your lungs determines how loud a sound will
be and how long you can make the sound. Try inhaling very deeply and saying the
names of all the kids in your class — how far can you get without taking the next
breath? The next time you're outside, try shouting and see what happens —
shouting requires lots of air, so you'll need to breathe in more frequently than you
would if you were only saying the words.
Experiment with different sounds and the air it takes to make them — when you
giggle, you let out your breath in short bits, but when you burp, you let swallowed
air in your stomach out in one long one! When you hiccup, it's because the
diaphragm moves in a funny way that causes you to breathe in air suddenly, and
that air hits your vocal cords when you're not ready.
Love Your Lungs
Your lungs are amazing. They allow you to breathe, talk to your friend, shout at a
game, sing, laugh, cry, and more! And speaking of a game, your lungs even work
with your brain to help you inhale and exhale a larger amount of air at a more rapid
rate when you're running a mile — all without you even thinking about it once.
Keeping your lungs looking and feeling healthy is a smart idea, and the best way to
keep your lungs pink and healthy is not to smoke. Smoking isn't good for any part
of your body, and your lungs especially hate it. Cigarette smoke damages the cilia
in the trachea so they can no longer move to keep dirt and other substances out of
the lungs. Your alveoli get hurt too, because the chemicals in cigarette smoke can
cause the walls of the delicate alveoli to break down, making it much harder to
breathe.
Finally, cigarette smoke can damage the cells of the lungs so much that the healthy
cells go away, only to be replaced by cancer cells. Lungs are normally tough and
strong, but when it comes to cigarettes, they can be hurt easily — and it's often
very difficult or impossible to make them better. If you need to work with
chemicals in an art or shop class, be sure to wear a protective mask to keep
chemical fumes from entering your lungs.
You can also show your love for your lungs by exercising! Exercise is good for
every part of your body, and especially for your lungs and heart. When you take
part in vigorous exercise (like biking, running, or swimming, for example), your
lungs require more air to give your cells the extra oxygen they need. As you
breathe more deeply and take in more air, your lungs become stronger and better at
supplying your body with the air it needs to succeed. Keep your lungs healthy and
they will thank you for life!
EXPERIMENT TIME
Modelling the Lungs
You will need: A plastic bottle, a small polythene bag, sticky tape, a bucket of
water.
Instructions:
Cut the base from a plastic bottle.
Push a small polythene bag through the neck of the bottle.
Tape the mouth of the bag around the outside of the bottle neck so that air
can still enter and leave the bag.
Blow into the bag to inflate it inside the bottle.
Now move the bottle up and down in a bucket of water.
Observe how the bag inflates and deflates – just like a lung – as you breathe
in and out.
NOTES FROM EXPERIMENT
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Conduct some research on how to keep the lungs healthy.
Record findings below.
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PERSONAL NOTES ABOUT THE LUNGS
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