In this activity, students learn how our bodies protect us from particle pollution by playing the role of cilia, the tiny hairs on the lungs that filter out particles.
Students are introduced to particulate matter, discuss its sources, and identify respiratory illnesses that can occur due to this type of pollution.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This is a fun game that makes students motivated to learn, especially because it takes place outside the classroom.
This resource includes student objectives, materials needed, and the various elements of a lesson plan, such as stage-setting.
Additional Prerequisites
The teacher must prepare all the materials for this game.
Differentiation
Teachers can lead students in discussions about why it's important to reduce particle pollution and how we can help reduce it.
Students can research whether rural or urban areas have more particulate air pollution and determine the different sources.
In science class, the teacher asks students to prepare a presentation showing the sources of particulate air pollution, ways to reduce it, and how the respiratory system responds to it.
The resource introduces students to particulate matter, ways to identify its form, and how to reduce particle pollution. This is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
MS-LS1-2 Develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and ways parts of cells contribute to the function.
MS-LS1-3 Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
National Health Education Standards
Standard 1: Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.
1.8.3 Analyze how the environment affects personal health.