**Note about Time** If time is limited, prepare one or both demonstrations in advance.
Script: Welcome to the Ingenia Space Training Camp. This week you will be learning about astronauts and their jobs. What is an astronaut? What do you know about being an astronaut? Tell a person sitting near you what you know about astronauts. (give students a minute to talk about their prior knowledge of astronauts) Let’s watch a short video to learn more about astronauts (~ 5 min): https://youtu.be/jhD8GFwy734 (https://www.youtube.com/@SciShowKids)
Take a deep breath and then let it out. How do you breathe? How do your lungs work? You might not know the answers to these questions yet, but today we are going to learn more about our lungs and how they work, a process called breathing. We are also going to learn about the challenges that astronauts have to overcome in order to breathe in outer space.
Script: Air is made up of different gasses that we can’t see or smell, but we know the gasses are there. Let’s watch another demonstration of air and gasses. (Show students an empty plastic bottle)
Script: What is inside this bottle? (Possible answers might include nothing and air. Add a few tablespoons of vinegar to a plastic bottle) Now there is some vinegar and some air inside the bottle. (Have a balloon ready with a couple tablespoons of baking soda. Secure the balloon to the mouth of the bottle. Slowly lift the balloon so the baking soda will fall into the vinegar. Observe how the balloon inflates?) What happened? Why did this happen? What inflated the balloon? (Lead a discussion to the understanding that when vinegar and baking soda mix there is a chemical reaction and a gas called carbon dioxide is released. The carbon dioxide inflated the balloon) Carbon dioxide is a gas that is present in air. It comes out of your body when you breathe out. Plants use the carbon dioxide in the air to produce food. What are other gasses present in the air we breathe? (give opportunities for answers)
Let’s watch a video to learn more about the components of air (start at 1:13): Composition of Air (byjus.com)
Script: Place your hands on the side of your body, right at the bottom of your ribs. Can you feel your ribs? Now take a deep breath and notice what happens inside your body when you do that. What do you feel when you breathe? How does your body move? Now, slowly, let the air out and feel what happens. You are going to work in teams to build a breathing machine. The breathing machine is a model of how your lungs work.
*Note: this activity was adapted and modified from Science Buddies https://www.sciencebuddies.org/ and The Science of Air Teacher’s Guide from Baylor College of Medicine
Teacher Note: This video shows how to build the breathing machine and gives some information about how the lungs work. Consider showing the video until minute 1:38 to provide students with some visual directions on how to build the breathing machine.
Make a Lung Model – STEM activity (https://www.sciencebuddies.org/)
Script: Let’s watch a video to learn more about how the lungs work.
How do lungs work? - Emma Bryce (www.youtube.com/@TedEd)
What did you learn about the lungs and the respiratory system? Share one new interesting fact you learn with a person sitting near you. (Give students a couple minutes to discuss the video) Now that you have learned more about how the lungs work, take some time to work on the model that you drew. What else can you add to it? Is there anything you would like to change about it? (Give students a few minutes to work on their models)
Doctors who specialize in the lungs are called pulmonologists. Let’s meet Dr. Cindy Jumper. She is a pulmonologist. (Share the interview on page 7 of the following document):
The Science of Air: Explorations Magazine (© Baylor College of Medicine)
Note to teacher: Students with asthma or other breathing issues should not measure their breath capacity using the lungometer. They can participate in building the lungometer, observe the activity and record information for the graphs.
*Note: this activity was adapted and modified from The Science of Air Teacher’s Guide from Baylor College of Medicine
(Consider having a printed copy of page 21 available for students since it provides illustrated directions to build the lungometer. You will also need copies of page 23 for students to record their data.)
Script: Take a deep breath. How much air do you think you can get into your lungs? Exhale. How much air comes out of your lungs? Do you think you can completely empty your lungs? Do you think your lungs hold the same amount of air as the lungs of a baby? Do you think your lungs hold the same amount of air as the lungs of an adult? Discuss in your group. (give students a couple minutes to discuss) The maximum amount of air that you can breathe out of your lungs after taking a deep breath is known as your vital breath capacity. There is some air that always remains in the lungs and the airways. The vital breath capacity can be measured. Pulmonologists like Dr. Cindy Jumper have machines that help them measure vital breath capacity. Sometimes people have diseases that can affect and diminish their vital breath capacity. Today, you are going to build a tool called a lungometer and you will be able to measure your lung capacity.
Provide students with a sticky note to write down their vital lung capacity or a team member’s vital lung capacity (for those with respiratory issues) and organize the data so they can observe the patterns.
Work with students to answer the following questions as a class:
Engage students in a group discussion:
Script: How do you think this information about air and how the lungs work is useful to scientists and engineers in order to build tools that can help astronauts breathe safely while exploring space? Let’s watch a video to learn more about how astronauts breathe in space:
How Does The ISS Get Oxygen?(www.youtube.com/@AstroBytes)
Air: a mixture of gasses including oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapor that surrounds Earth and that people, animals and plants breath.
Oxygen: a chemical element that constitutes 21% of air and it is necessary for animals and plants to live
Nitrogen: a chemical element that makes up most of the air in Earth’s atmosphere
Carbon Dioxide: a gas that is part of air
Lungs: organs that are part of the respiratory system and are used for breathing
Lung Capacity: the maximum amount of air that you can breathe out of your lungs after taking a deep breath.
After going over the vocabulary, ask students to draw a circle and color ¾ of the circle green with the label Nitrogen, ¼ of the circle blue with the label oxygen and a sliver of orange with the label carbon dioxide to remember the main components of air.
Improve the model of the lungs that you drew today in class and explain your model of the lungs to a family member.
