Title:

Lung Power

Grade Level:

9

Subject:

Science

Author:

nbclearn

Time:

60 minutes

Lesson Plan Type:

Video,Interactive Instruction

Keywords:

muscles, lungs, motion, oxygen, energy, breathing, olympics

Brief Description:

Students will learn several important characteristics about how athletes increase the amount of oxygen they take in to supply energy to their legs and arms. Students will learn about different types of breathing and create a flow chart about the body’s process of taking in oxygen and converting it to energy and movement.

  

California State Standards Addressed:

Science/9/Biology and Life Sciences)9.0

Related Links:

Link 1:
Link 2:
Link 3:

Goal(s):

Students will learn several important characteristics about how athletes increase the amount of oxygen they intake to supply energy to their legs and arms. Students will learn about different types of breathing and create a flow chart about the body’s process of taking in oxygen and converting it to energy and movement.

Specific Objectives:

Students will be able to:

1. Ask scientific questions
2. Explore the relationship between oxygen and energy in the body
3. Investigate the role of practice in developing aerobic breathing techniques
4. Create a flow chart depicting the process of a body taking in oxygen and converting it to energy to produce movement

Required Materials:

• The NBC Learn Video: The Inner Athlete: Cross Country Skiing
  
• a balloon for each student in the class
• paper and pencils for each student in the class
• white board and dry erase markers
• a computer with an internet connection available (or books and other resources with information about the process of transforming oxygen into energy)
• a clock with a second hand that can be seen by the entire class.

Anticipatory Set (Lead-in):

Give each student a balloon. Ask students to predict how long it will take them to blow up the balloon. Ask them to write their prediction on a piece of paper. Tell them to blow the balloon up while they time how long it takes them to do it. Ask students to write their actual time on the same piece of paper. Discuss with the class how their results compared to their predictions. Tell students that later on, at the end of the lesson, they can try the experiment again and compare the results of the second trial with the first trial. Explain to students that they are going to be learning quite a bit about breathing and lungs. Also, like Olympic athletes, they are going to learn how they are able to use the oxygen they breathe to supply energy to their arms and legs. View the NBC Learn Video: The Inner Athlete: Cross Country Skiing.

Lesson Plan Procedure:

1. Tell students that they are going to review a few of the main concepts that were presented in the NBC Learn Video: The Inner Athlete: Cross Country Skiing.
2. Remind students that the video stated that cross country skiers are among the most aerobically fit athletes in the world. Ask students what the term “aerobically fit” means. Discuss possible answers. If students do not understand the term, inform them that aerobically fit athletes, like the video explained, have trained their body how to be more efficient in taking up oxygen and actually transferring that oxygen for use at a cellular level for energy.
3. Ask students if any of them have ever taken an aerobics class. Ask why it was called an “aerobics class” rather than just an exercise class. Point out that, during aerobics classes, the instructors try to help students achieve a certain pulse rate for at least 20 minutes of continuous activity so that the body can effectively use oxygen for energy.
4. Point out to students that to take in oxygen, people must breathe. That seems like an obvious statement but there are different ways of breathing.
5. Ask for a volunteer to come forward to say the alphabet two times as fast as possible. Tell him/her that they can take a breath whenever they need to but that you are going to time how long it takes them to say the alphabet two times.
6. Before the volunteer begins, ask him/her to step outside. While the student is outside, tell the class to watch the volunteer’s shoulders. They should notice if they move up when a breath is taken or if they stay level.
7. Tell the volunteer to come back in and do the exercise.
8. After he/she finishes, ask the class to discuss what they observed. Most likely, they will have seen the volunteer take quick, shallow breaths, which result in the shoulders quickly coming up when the breath is taken.
9. Tell students that singers and aerobic athletes have one thing in common. They both have to learn a special way to breathe called diaphragmatic breathing. This type of breathing allows the body to take more air in and use air more efficiently.
10. Tell students that they are going to do an exercise to help them gain an understanding of their breathing. Ask them to take a breath and hold it. Tell them to slowly let the air out while at the same time making an “sssss” sound. Have a clock with a second hand on it so that students can time how long they can take to let all their air out.
11. When all the students have completed this task, ask students to locate the bottom of their rib cage on both sides. Once they do that, tell them to slowly move their hands/fingers together to find the spot in the front upper stomach area where their diaphragm is. Tell students to remember the spot for the next exercise they are going to do.
12. Tell students that they are going to do the same exercise they did before, but this time, they are going to try and breathe with their diaphragm. Ask students to find the “spot” where their diaphragm is. Ask students to push that spot in with their fingers. Ask students to take a breath with their diaphragm muscle so that they can actually use that muscle to push their fingers back out.
13. Explain that by using their diaphragm muscle (which expands the stomach area rather than the chest area) to breathe, they are going to be taking better breaths that pull more oxygen into their body. Ask students to once again take a big breath, this time using their diaphragm muscle, and hold it. Students should time themselves as they slowly let the air out while making an “sssss” sound. Students should also keep a hand on their diaphragm area to feel it going down as the air leaves the body. (This activity helps students focus on what their diaphragm is doing during the breathing process.)
14. Next, tell students that they are going to practice using their diaphragm to draw in oxygen as deeply as possible so that their body can have access to it more effectively. Tell students to look at the clock and see how long they can slowly breathe in air without stopping--the longer the better. While students do this activity they should place one hand on their chest and the other hand on their diaphragm. They should feel the diaphragm--not the chest--expand out.
15. Watch students while they do this activity and remind them that if they feel lightheaded they are to stop.
16. Tell students that they are using the same type of breathing techniques that aerobics instructors use during their classes.

Closure (Reflect Anticipatory Set):

Tell students that they have learned that there are different ways to breathe. In our busy lives we sometimes forget how to breathe correctly, which is to use our diaphragm and keep our shoulders level rather than hunching them up to take quick breaths. Remind students that shallow breathing (or chest breathing) reduces the amount of oxygen that you can take in. This can lead to a variety of potential problems, including having less energy. Ask students to observe their friends and family as well as athletes and even professional vocalists to compare how they breathe. Ask students to once again take out their balloon and get ready to blow it up, except that this time they should try to use the strength of their diaphragm muscle to blow the air in. Remind students to time themselves and compare their time and overall experience of this “second trial” to the “first trial” they did at the beginning of the lesson.

Plan for Independent Practice:

Tell students that they are going to be working in groups to create a “flow chart” of what happens in the body from the point oxygen is taken in to the point it can convert that oxygen into energy, to the point where that energy can actually contract a muscle in the body. Write any internet links included with this lesson on the board as resources for the students to use. If the internet is not available, make books available that have drawings, pictures, and diagrams in them of the oxygen to energy to muscle contraction conversion process. After all groups have completed their flow charts, they can choose one member to point out and describe the process and the way they chose to illustrate it with the rest of the class.

Assessment Based on Objectives:

Begin the next day’s lesson with the quiz titled, “Lung Power”. (See attached quiz.)

Possible Connections to Other Subjects:

Language Arts: Students can interview an athlete or vocalist to ask questions they have prepared about the way that they breathe and the effect that breathing has on their “craft”.

Physical Education: Students can develop a plan to improve their own aerobic fitness with the advice and guidance of a physical education teacher.

Adaptations and Extensions:

Additional Notes:

N/A