The Human Body: The Respiratory System

We are using the Montessori Sixth Great Lesson analogy of The Great River (click the link and then choose "The Nation of the Great River - Narration and Music - by Lizby Dingus and Kai Engle" to hear ETC Montessori's version of this lovely story; choose "Teacher's Notes" to download the words as a PDF).

This story is a wonderful way to frame our work. In a Montessori Lower Elementary classroom students ages 6-9 would hear this story every year. It is part of the Peace & Cosmic Education subject of the curriculum.

This isn't as rich and hands-on as when I taught The Human Body as a summer camp in 2018, of course, because we are doing social distancing and meeting via Zoom. But you do the best you can with what you have!

With this "Flipped Classroom" approach, students are doing the "Prior to Meeting" activities at home with their families before we gather on Zoom.

Previous Sessions in this Science Club topic were:

• The Twelve Senses
• Teaching About ASL and Braille
• The Human Body: The Nervous System
• The Human Body: The Circulatory System
• The Human Body: The Muscular System
• The Human Body: The Skeletal System
• The Human Body: The Teeth
• The Human Body: The Digestive System

Friday, July 31

Prior to Meeting

Review of The Digestive System
(The Department of Nutrition)

• coloring pages from Human Anatomy Coloring Book by Margaret Matt and Joe Ziemian

  "Digestive System" on page 30

  "Small Intestine" on page 33

  

Introduction to The Respiratory System

• experiments from Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides by Linda Allison

  "Percussing" on page 60

  "Charting Oxygen Intake" on page 63

  "Lung Exhaust" on page 65

  "Nose and Throast Connection" on page 67

  

• IF you have the book Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, read chapter 12, “Fresh Water to Drink.” How does this go along with our topic this week?

  

• make cards for Respiration & Photosynthesis activity

  Each little card should have a large capital letter written on it:

  18 cards that say O

  12 cards that say H

  6 cards that say C

During the Meeting

• review the results of student at-home activities
• Show students how to lay out their element cards to make six molecules of water (H₂O) and six molecules of carbon dioxide (CO₂) on a green piece of fabric to represent a leaf. The water enters the leaf via the roots of the plant and then is transported up through the stems; the carbon dioxide enters the leaf via the stomata (little "mouths" on the underside of the leaf).

  The energy from the sunlight is a "bond breaker" (remember that even with water and carbon dioxide, a plant will still die if you put it in a dark closet; this is because it can't do photosynthesis and so it "starves to death")!

  Break the bonds of your molecules and rearrange your cards to form a molecule of glucose (C₆H₁₂O₆). What do you have left over?

  The answer is that you have a bunch of oxygen cards. Oxygen doesn't like to be alone, so each one "joins hands" with a partner, forming molecules of O₂ and they float out of the leaf through the stomata. Thus the sugar is the product of photosynethesis and the oxygen is the by-product. That is what we mean when we say "Plants take in our carbon dioxide and give off oxygen." It's merely a by-product.

  This lesson idea comes from In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms by Jacqueline and Martin Brooks.

  

  Use a chime to practice Dancing the Relationship Between Photosynthesis and Respiration (my lesson idea in PDF form).

  

• read the chapter "Lungs: Airways to the Inside" from Blood and Guts, stopping as follows:

  

  for page 62, show model lung and discuss how the diaphragm works

  at the bottom of page 64, discuss surface tension and how to make a fruit fly trap by putting a drop of dish detergent into a small bowl of balsamic vinegar

  at the bottom of page 69, do "Hold Your Tongue" activities #1-3

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