Science Lesson Swap - Finland

The Magnificent Breathing Machine

We have studied about breathing from our biology books and revised it first before starting the experiment. 5B is ready to do the science experiment.

The pupils wrote the instructions in their notebooks.

"I wonder how the finished product looks like?"

The groups needed a plastic bottle, a straw, two balloons and play dough.

The bottom of the bottle was cut off. "How much do we cut?"

"Do we only have to cut the top of from the balloon?"

"Hold on to the bottle, so I can slip the balloon to the bottom of the cut bottle." What a good idea it was to make a knot to the stem of the balloon before slipping it through.

                                         This is fun!

The balloon stays on the straw better when we tape it on to the straw.

Then the straw goes into the bottle, with the balloon going first in, and then the play dough which blocks the mouth of the bottle.

"Hey, this works. We thought we had to blow into the straw!" The small balloon will inflate the same as when you expand your chest and inhale air through the nose.

In the end, we wrote the results in our notebooks. Oxygen, the gas body needs, comes from the air. The lungs and other parts of the respiratory system remove carbon dioxide from the blood as a waste product. This excess carbon dioxide is exhaled.