Unit 12 A Health Body

Topic

Measuring lung capacity

Curriculum Link

12.9 Exercise and Health

Estimated Lesson Time

80 minutes

Introduction

Students are engaged to attend to the importance of lung capacity by watching a video clip 'Free-diving'. Then they are required to complete three tasks in this learning activity. Firstly, they  conduct an experiment to measure their lung capacities. Then teacher provides students with opportunities to elaborate the concept of lung capacity in relating to some sports. Finally, students are invited to suggest methods to measure the strength of their lungs.

Key Question

How strong is your lung?

Learning Objectives

In this activity, the students should be able to

  1. understand lung capacity as an indicator of fitness;
  2. observe, measure & record data during experiment (SP1);
  3. draw conclusion from the data collected (SP5);
  4. suggest methods to measure the strength of their lung.

Teaching Plan

Task (Time) Brief Description Materials Objectives

Engagement
(10 min)

Teacher shows a video clip 'World Record of Free-diving' to students. Teacher could explain 'Free-diving' as 'diving without oxygen kit' and invite students to guess how deep the diver could push underwater

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF4PN8-2YSk

Teacher could engage students to attend to the relationship between lung capacity and air pressure by asking:

  • 'What does the diver do before going into the water?'
  • 'What is lung capacity?' (It is the average volume of air inhaled by and exhaled from the lungs.)
  • 'Why is large lung capacity desirable for humans?'
  • 'Who would have the larger lung capacity on average – people who live at sea level or those who live at high altitude? Suggest why this might be true.'
  • 'How could we increase your lung capacity?'
 (1)

Exploration
(25 min)

Students explore their lung capacity by task 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy4kzOeLD5E

  • Invite 3 boys and 3 girls to line up in sequence.
    Ask them to exhaust the air completely from their lungs and then take a very deep breath.

  • The 6 students expel the air into the gas container that is filled with water. Measure and record the difference in height of the water in the gas container after all lung air has been expelled.
  • Thus record the lung capacity of each pupil in liters.
 (1) & (2)

Explanation
(10 min)

Teacher explains the principle of measuring lung capacity.

  • What caused the water to leave the gas container on the "expelling" phase of the experiment?
  • Is the volume of lung capacity the same for each student? What might account for any differences noticed?
 (3)

Evaluation
(10 min)

Students' understanding of lung capacity is evaluated by asking students to complete Task 1 questions:

  • 'What is the average lung capacity of the 6 students? Any differences between boys and girls?'
  • 'What conclusions might you draw after completing this experiment?'

(Optional) Ask students to suggest methods to improve the above experiment.

  

Elaboration
(10 min)

Students elaborate the concept of lung capacity in relating to some sports in Task 2
Show photos of 'fisherman', 'people living in mountain' and 'Athletes' and 'baby'... and ask students:

'Which people have strong lung capacity? Explain their answers?'  

(Optional for the following discussion)

  • 'Some athletes compete at high altitudes are at disadvantage. Explain why.'
  • 'What will happen to your lung capacity if you breathe pure oxygen instead of ordinary air?'
(1)

Exploration
(15 min)

Teacher demonstrates a simple method below to measure the strength of lung. Students are invited to suggest methods in task 3.

Suggestions to determine the strength of lung :

  • Students place some books on a plastic bag and blow air into the bag to lift up the books. Measure the height of book for one blow.
  • Students hold a tissue on a window from a distance by blowing air on it. Measure the time of holding for one blow.
  • Sing a music note as long as possible.
 (4)

*Apparatus and materials required: