How Breathing Works
Know that we breathe air into our lungs through the nose and mouth, that our lungs take in oxygen from the air which our body needs to stay alive, and that we breathe out carbon dioxide as waste
What a learner can do afterwards
- Trace the path of air: nose/mouth → windpipe → lungs
- State that lungs take oxygen from the air, which the body needs
- State that we breathe out carbon dioxide, which the body doesn't need
The lesson
You breathe air in through your nose or mouth. The air moves down a tube called your windpipe. It ends up inside your lungs.
Ben runs fast at recess. He breathes in through his nose. Air goes down his windpipe to his lungs. His lungs pull oxygen out of the air. His body needs that oxygen to keep going.
When you breathe out, you push out carbon dioxide. Your body does not need carbon dioxide. So it leaves your body as waste.
Air comes in, lungs take oxygen, and you breathe out carbon dioxide.
Watch it
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.