1. MODELLING LUNGS
YEAR 8 – BODY SYSTEMS

2. AIM
• To model the function
of a lung.

3. EQUIPMENT
• A plastic bottle
• A straw
• Sticky tape
• Scissors
• 2 balloons
• Playdough

4. RISK ASSESSMENT
Risk
Injury
Prevention
Fill out a risk assessment for your experiment

5. METHOD
1. Remove the bottom of
your bottle.
2. Tie a knot in one end
of a balloon and snip
of the fat end.

6. METHOD
3. Stretch this end around
the bottom of your plastic
bottle and stick it to the
bottle using tape.
4. Put a straw in the neck of
the other balloon and
secure tightly with the
sticky tape but not so that
you crush the straw. The
air must flow through so
test it with a little bow
through the straw to see if
the balloon inflates.

7. METHOD
5. Put the straw and the
balloon into the neck of
the bottle and secure
with the playdough
making a seal around
the bottle – make sure
that again, you don’t
crush straw.
6. Pull the knot of the
balloon at the bottom
and observe your
results.

8. METHOD
7. Draw a table that shows what each part of your
model represents in the respiratory system.
8. Take a picture of your lung model and paste it into
the results section.

9. RESULTS
(Heading for your table)
Part in Model
Part in Respiratory System
(Paste a picture of your lung model here)

10. DISCUSSION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What causes the balloons to expand?
What causes the balloons to deflate?
What causes air to go into your lungs?
What causes air to go out of your lungs?
In what ways does the model you built do a good
job of representing the lungs?
6. In what ways could your model be improved?

11. CONCLUSION
• Write your conclusion here.