Student Activities

1. Calculate the number of heartbeats and number of breaths you've taken so far at: http://cgi.intellihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSDSC000/9273/24321.html

Based on your answers, calculate the number per year, month, and day.  Compare and discuss your results with the rest of the class.

2. One of the goals of the Global Heartbeat program is to help students realize that all living things are interconnected.  Compare your circulatory and respiratory systems with those of a crab (see related lesson on crabs).  Give specific examples of how crabs and humans could both be affected by the same polluted estuary.

3. Visit the website below, which contains an experiment for measuring lung capacity using a balloon and a ruler.

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/1410/lab-B-23.html

Try the experiment and fill in the data table. Discuss and compare your results with fellow students.

4. Some marine mammals are able to dive deep in search of food and have certain respiratory adaptations that allow them to do so. For example, the Weddell seal can dive to depths of 1200 feet and stay there for over an hour.  By using the Internet or other sources, describe this animal's respiratory adaptations by comparing its oxygen storage capabilities to that of a human, and explain how it can withstand pressure at extreme depths.