Activity 1C: Slicin’ and Dicin’: Lung Dissection

Students will be delighted at the prospect of dissecting! The excitement will not fade when you show them the paper dissection of the lungs. After coloring and cutting out a paper model of the lungs, students will attempt to put layers of the lungs in order. Students will predict how organ structure relates to organ function. As students work at these tasks, the teacher will record comments in a word experience chart and use these comments as a springboard for teaching necessary vocabulary and labeling parts of the respiratory system. Students will also observe the interaction of the respiratory and circulatory systems in the process of respiration. Once the students have been taught the parts to the respiratory system, they will again attempt to place the lung layers in correct order. Completing their own word experience chart, students will use corrected information to “process out” the activity and will make corrections to their structure and function predictions. To extend learning, groups of students will then be assigned a part of the lungs to research for a presentation (poster, slideshow or movie) and will create a 3-D craft foam model to “showcase” collaboratively with the rest of the class.