Breathe In, Breathe Out: Create a Working Lung Model
Shared by STEM Girl Day Partner: Nomi Health
Recommended Grades: All
The Challenge: Explore how our lungs work and make a working model of the lungs that includes the diaphragm.
Materials needed:
- Plastic bottle with screw top cap
- 2-3 straws
- 2 rubber bands
- Tape
- 2 balloons
- Plastic wrap
- Scissors
- Exacto Knife (adult use only)
Instructions:
Visit Instructables to find the step-by-step instructions with photos or download the PDF below:
STEM Connections (from Instructables):
How do our lungs work?
When we breathe, our lungs bring in fresh oxygen for our body and remove carbon and dioxide and other waste gases our bodies don’t need.
When we inhale, or breathe in, we use the muscles in our rib cage, especially the muscle called the diaphragm.
To get the oxygen your body needs, you inhale air through your mouth and nose and air passes through the throat into the trachea. Also called the windpipe.
The trachea divides into the left and right bronchi, like a branch, each bronchus divides again and again, becoming narrower and narrower. Kind of like tree branches.
Your smallest airways end in the alveoli, al·vee·uh·lai, small, thin air sacs that are arranged in clusters. Alveoli are an important part of the respiratory system. It is their job to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules to and from the bloodstream and thus to and from our cells!
About Nomi Health
Learn more about Nomi Health at https://nomihealth.com/. Learn more about Nomi Health's partnership with Women in STEM at UT Austin and STEM Girl Day at UT Austin at https://nomihealth.com/blog/announcing-the-nomi-health-charitable-foundation/.