Topic ladders · Air & Breathing · Family table

Family table: Air & Breathing

All four rungs side by side. A younger child and an older one can do the same topic together, each at their own level.

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Step	Classes 1–3	Classes 4–7	Classes 8–10	Classes 11–12
Activity	Air Is All Around Us	Breathing and the Need for Air	Composition of Air and Respiration	Investigating Respiratory or Gas Exchange Questions
Safety	Simple and safe. Blow up balloons yourself and do not share them between mouths. Pick up burst balloon pieces at once: they are a choking risk for small children. Wipe up spilled water.	Keep exercise gentle. Skip the exercise part if the child is unwell, has asthma or another breathing or heart condition, or if a doctor has said to avoid exercise. Stop if they feel dizzy or breathless. Have water nearby.	Lighting and handling the candle is a grown-up job, on a metal tray, away from curtains and paper, with water nearby. Jars get hot. For limewater: eye protection, blow gently out through the straw and never suck in, one straw per person, wash hands afterwards. Limewater comes from a school laboratory, not made at home.	Safety and ethics: Single-use or properly cleaned mouthpieces; no sharing. No breath-holding contests and no fast over-breathing (both can cause fainting). Consent from every participant (a parent's too if under 18); anyone can stop at any time. People with asthma or other conditions take part only if they choose and their doctor's advice allows. Data recorded without names.
What you need	Empty plastic bottle, a clear glass, a dry tissue, balloon, paper, a bucket or deep bowl of water	Stopwatch or timer A partner Paper for recording	For the grown-up or teacher demonstration: a short candle on a metal tray, 2–3 glass jars of different sizes, a stopwatch, matches, a bowl of water nearby Optional, at school: limewater (from the school laboratory), a clean straw for each person, a test tube, eye protection Notebook	Depends on investigation (spirometer or a simple lung-volume bell jar or bottle method, sensors, secondary data)
Notice	Can you see air? How do you know it is there?	We breathe all the time. What happens when we exercise?	Air is a mixture. We use part of it when we breathe and when things burn.	Gas exchange and breathing rate are regulated and can be affected by many factors.
Guess	Is the "empty" glass really empty? If we push it upside down into water, will a tissue inside get wet?	Will your breathing rate be higher after exercise?	What happens to a candle burning in a closed jar? Will it burn longer in a bigger jar? What gas do we breathe out?	Choose a focused, ethical question about breathing, lung volume, or gas exchange.
Try	Push a dry tissue into the bottom of the glass. Push the glass straight down, upside down, into the water, then lift it straight out. Also wave paper to feel air, and let air out of a balloon a grown-up has blown up.	Sit quietly for two minutes. Your partner counts your breaths for one minute (one breath = in and out). Then do one minute of gentle exercise, like marching on the spot. Count again straight away, and once more after five minutes of rest.	Watch a grown-up place jars of different sizes over a lit candle and time how long it burns under each. At school, with eye protection on, blow gently through a straw into a little limewater.	Design a safe investigation or analyse secondary data.
Observe	Is the tissue still dry? Tilt the glass under water: what comes out? What evidence shows that air takes up space and can move?	Record the numbers and compare.	Record burning times and any change in the limewater.	Collect or extract quantitative data.
Explain	Tell someone that air is a real thing even though we cannot see it.	Why do you think breathing rate changes with exercise?	Link results to the oxygen available in each jar and to carbon dioxide in breathed-out air.	Interpret results in the context of human physiology and discuss limitations.
Ask another question	What happens when we breathe air in and out?	What else changes when we exercise (heart rate, feeling warm)?	How do plants affect the balance of gases in the air?	How do your findings relate to health, exercise physiology or environmental factors?

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