Respiratory System

In science class, we learned about the respiratory system  The respiratory system is important because it gets oxygen to our blood and it also takes out the carbon dioxide from our blood when we exhale.  This is the pathway of air as it enters our respiratory system:

1.  When we inhale, air enters through our nose or our mouth.  If it enters through our nose, then it first goes through the nasal cavity.
2. Next, air travels to the throat or the pharynx (which is the scientific name).
3. Then air passes our larynx (or the voicebox) and enters the trachea (or the windpipe).  This is a long tube that basically takes the air from our pharynx to the lungs.
4. Then the trachea branches off into two tubes which are called the bronchi tubes.  There is a right bronchus that takes air into the right lung, and there is a left bronchus that takes air to the left lung.
5. After air travels to each of the bronchi tubes, these bronchi tubes branch off into smaller tubes called bronchioles.
6. Finally, the bronchioles reach air sacs called alveoli.
7. The alveoli are filled with tiny capillaries that take out oxygen from the air sacs and move the oxygen into the blood.  These alveoli also take out carbon dioxide from the capillaries and when we exhale, the carbon is passed back up to the bronchioles, to the bronchi, to the trachea until finally the carbon exits either our mouth or our nose.

Therefore this is why we inhale and exhale.  We inhale so that we can get oxygen all the way to our lungs and alveoli.  We exhale so that we can get rid of the carbon dioxide which is the waste from our cells.

Respiratory System Model

In class, we created small models of the respiratory system with a water bottle, straws, and balloons.  The model in this picture was made by my student, Jacinda Lee. You can see the pink balloon at the bottom of the water bottle.  This balloon represents the diaphragm.  When you pull down on this balloon air will be sucked in through the straw and into the two small red balloons (which represent the lungs).  Then if you let the pink balloon go back to its resting position, air goes back out of the two red balloons.  Therefore, by making this model, we learned how the diaphragm works in the respiratory system.

In our bodies, when the diaphragm moves down, this movement will allow air to flow into our bodies and down to the lungs.  Then, when the diaphragm goes back to its resting position, it will force the air to go out of our lungs and out of our bodies.  This is how we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.

 

 

 

 

 

Below is a video that my student Paul Valentine made.  You can see how it models the respiratory system.