How Do Aquatic Animals Hold Their Breath For So Long? Teacher Guide

Air and Animate

Author(s): Nancy P. Moreno, PhD, Barbara Z. Tharp, MS, and Paula H. Cutler, BA.

Blowing bubbles allows students to easily observe the prescence of air.
© Iofoto.

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  and Student Pages
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• Grades:
• K-ii
• Length: 30 Minutes

Overview

Students explore breathing and air by blowing bubbles and past observing themselves and others during breathing.

This activity is from the Living Things and Their Needs Instructor's Guide. Although it is most appropriate for apply with students in grades 1000-2, the lesson is easily adaptable for other grade levels. The guide as well is available in print format.

• Teacher
  Background
• Objectives and Standards
• Materials and
  Setup
• Procedure and
  Extensions
• Handouts and
  Downloads

Teacher Groundwork

Animals need oxygen from air to carry out the reactions that release and transform energy from food. Carbon dioxide is released every bit a waste product during these processes.

In mammals, including humans, air enters the torso through the nose and mouth, and moves into the lungs. Once in the lungs, oxygen from air passes through the moist interior of the lungs and is dissolved into the bloodstream. The centre pumps oxygenated claret to the rest of the torso. Some mammals, such as whales, porpoises and seals, breathe air, only are able to agree their breath for long periods of time while they are under water.

Other animals have evolved different ways to capture oxygen. A worm, for instance, breathes through the damp surface of its trunk. Oxygen dissolves in the surface moisture and passes into the body and the bloodstream. Fish and many other aquatic animals utilize gills to absorb oxygen from h2o. The gills of fish, for case, consist of thin sheets. Water is drawn in through the fish'due south oral cavity and flows across the gills, where oxygen passes directly into the bloodstream through tiny capillaries (claret vessels).

Objectives and Standards

Concepts

• Animals need air to live.

• People and many other animals take in air past animate.

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Scientific discipline Skills

• Observing

• Communicating

• Generalizing

Mathematics Skills

• Generalizing

Language Arts Skills

• Listening

• Communicating

• Developing comprehension skills

• Writing

• Using descriptive language

• Following directions

Materials and Setup

Teacher Materials (see Setup)

• ii–3 drinking straws, cutting in one-half

• Dishwashing detergent, 8-oz bottle (run into Setup)

• Gallon container

• Glycerine, 4-oz bottle (drugstore, run across Setup)

• Overhead projector

• Water

Materials per Team of Two Students

• 4 prepared paper cups, 3 oz (bathroom-size, see Setup)

• 2 clear plastic cups, 9 oz

• Paper towels

• Copies of the student sheet

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Setup

1. To make chimera solution, gently pour 8 ounces of dishwashing detergent (Ivory or Dawn works best) and 4 ounces of drugstore glycerine (glycerol) into a gallon container that is well-nigh full of water. Mix slowly to avert making bubbles.

2. As an alternative, y'all may buy the bubble solution.

3. Create bubble-makers for students to use past removing the bottoms from small newspaper cups.

4. Have students work in teams of two.

Procedure and Extensions

1. Pour about a tablespoon of bubble solution onto the projection area of a standard overhead projector. Ask students, What do you lot see? (liquid on the overhead). Side by side, gently place the tip of a straw into the liquid and accident to create a bubble. Students will be able to find the bubble equally information technology is projected. Inquire, What is different about the liquid? (information technology contains a chimera of air). Y'all also tin can conduct this introduction by blowing the bubble on a table to class a dome full of air.

2. Mention that air is all around us, only usually cannot be seen. Still, when air is trapped in a container, like a bubble, we are able to observe it. Enquire students, What exercise you think is inside the bubble? Give students time to think and respond. Responses will vary. Prompt students' thinking with additional questions, such as, Tin you run across what'south in the chimera? Assist students to conclude that the chimera contains air.

3. Tell students that they will be making bubble containers full of air.

   Note. Y'all may wish to practise this part of the activity outside.

4. Give each pupil a clear plastic loving cup that is well-nigh 1-tertiary filled with bubble solution.

5. Ask students to dip the larger stop of the small-scale cup—original opening—into the solution carefully. Then have students elevator the small loving cup, aim their chimera blowers abroad from any other persons, and carefully blow on the smaller end. (Brand certain students do not touch their mouths to the ends dipped in bubble solution.) Students should observe the bubbling.

6. Ask, Where did the air in the bubble come from? Will a chimera form if y'all exercise not breathe into the cup?

7. Take students draw a motion-picture show of the bubbles they created, and/or, depending on their ages, write three different words that describe the bubbles.

8. Prompt students to call back about where the air they blew into the chimera came from. Help them understand that they inhaled air into their bodies, and then exhaled air that wasn't needed (forth with water products) dorsum out.

9. Have students identify their hands over their chests while sitting however for one minute. Ask, What did you notice? (students should annotation that the chest is moving in and out). Follow by asking, What is happening? Talk almost the fact that all animals breathe: accept air in and permit air out. What is happening when your breast is moving? Assistance students understand that their chests' expand when they breathe air into their bodies (or lungs).

10. Conclude past having students imagine what a bubble might look like if it were created by a really large animal, such as a hippopotamus. Ask, Do you recollect that the chimera would exist larger or smaller than the ones yous made? Have students write a fun story or draw a picture about the possibilities.

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Extensions

• Have students experiment with different sizes of bubble makers to discover whether chimera size is affected.

• Ask students, How long can y'all concord your breath? Near people tin hold their breath for well-nigh one infinitesimal. Compare this to a hippopotamus, which can hold its breath for 15 minutes. Or to a beaver that can hold its breath for xx minutes. Or to a whale that tin go for an hour without taking a new breath!

• Challenge students to think of other ways we tin detect the presence of air. Examples might include containers that hold air, such as balloons or automobile tires; or objects that are moved by air, such equally flags or pinwheels. Have students draw different "air detectors."

Handouts and Downloads

Related Content

• Living Things and Their Needs

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• Tillena Lou'due south Day in the Sun

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  Tillena Lou and her siblings spend a lazy day imagining what it might exist like if they were other types of animals. What would they need to survive?

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Source: https://www.bioedonline.org/lessons-and-more/lessons-by-topic/ecology/needs-of-living-things/air-and-breathing/

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