KS3 Breathing

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Year 8 Breathing & Respiration
Learning Objectives

Pupils should be able to:

  1. know the detailed structure of the thorax and how it allows ventilation to take place.
  2. recall that gas exchange is necessary to remove carbon dioxide from the blood and absorb oxygen that is required for aerobic respiration.
  3. identify how and why diffusion occurs.
  4. know the composition of inhaled and exhaled air.
  5. describe features of the alveoli, eg very thin walls, large surface area, the network of blood capillaries around the alveoli.
  6. know that the heart pumps blood around the body in blood vessels to supply and remove respiratory gases and how it is adapted for these functions.
  7. explain why increased levels of activity increase ventilation.
  8. identify how smoking damages the lungs.
  9. recall that aerobic respiration involves a reaction in cells between oxygen and food, in which glucose is broken down into carbon dioxide and water.
  10. summarise aerobic respiration with a word equation.
  11. identify differences between respiration reaction in cells and combustion, eg in the cell the release of energy is controlled.
  12. know that when there is insufficient oxygen respiration generates lactic acid and relatively small amounts of energy. This is anaerobic respiration.
  13. describe the effects on the body of an inadequate oxygen supply.
  14. know that anaerobic respiration by yeast produces ethanol and carbon dioxide.

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