In the Classroom Activity Support Information
Activity - Pig Lungs:
Purpose: This activity is designed to give students a clear idea of what can happen to human
lungs when a person smokes by looking at both healthy pink lungs and unhealthy tarred lungs.
This activity also teaches kids that they themselves may choose to have healthy pink lungs and
reinforces the importance of breathing. Most people don’t smoke and people who do rarely start
after the age of 18. (80 percent of people in this country, including teens, don’t smoke and
never will.)
Directions: Think about how good it feels to breathe. “Breath is Life”. (This could be a good
student made poster for the station) Show the students healthy pink lungs and unhealthy tarred
lungs. Be sure to wear gloves when handling the pig lungs. Explain the teaching points as you
inflate and deflate the two sets of lungs, pointing out the differing features of each. Many
people who smoke feel like it is hard to breathe all the time. Put up the healthy lung again at the
end. Have them breathe as deeply as they can one more time and talk about how good it
feels to be able to breathe. Make sure you mention the key points about the lungs and follow
the care instructions below. Ask participants if a friend asks them to try cigarettes or other
tobacco products, how would they go about saying no and not losing a friend? See link below.
Teaching points:
About the Lungs:
 Pig lungs are used for this activity because they are very much like human lungs.
 These pig lungs are about the size of the lungs in a healthy adult human.
 There are five lobes in our two lungs, the right lung has three lobes and the left lung has
two lobes because our heart is on the left side.
 The “healthy” lungs are dyed pink so they look like lungs with oxygenated blood
circulating in them.
 Blood picks up oxygen from the air breathed in and delivers the oxygen to every cell in
the body.
 Cells use the oxygen and glucose from the food we eat to make energy. That energy
keeps us alive.
 The “unhealthy” lungs are dyed black to look like the lungs of a person who smoked a
pack a day for 20 years.
 The black dye looks like the tar that would build up in the lungs from cigarette smoke.
 Notice that the black lungs have a tumor and do not fully expand.
 Learning how to say no to unhealthy or dangerous behaviors is important. You can give
out a paper that helps kids practice how to do it and not feel embarrassed or scared.
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About Smoking:
 “Lite” cigarettes or low tar cigarettes are just as hard on your lungs as regular cigarettes.
 Most people don’t smoke and people who do usually started as teenagers. (80 percent of
people in this country, including teens, don’t smoke and never will.)
 Tobacco companies market to young people because the older smokers are dying and
they need new ones in order to make money. Look up articles about how they lure teens
into smoking.
 Smoking is addictive due to a substance called nicotine. It is very hard to quit.
 Not smoking can save you more than $2,100 a year!
 Smoking makes it easier to get sick and harder for your body to heal. Also, it causes
wrinkles and bad breath.
 Secondhand smoke is just as harmful as smoking itself. Thirdhand smoke makes
especially babies and children sick.
 More than 440,000 U. S. residents die each year from cigarette smoking and second hand
smoke. That is the same number of people that it would take to fill up INVESCO Field six
times!
 Diseases caused by smoking include: Lung Cancer, Emphysema, and Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease (COPD). These diseases make you feel like you can’t breathe. To start
learning about lung disease, try this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/health/29lung.html
 Smoking may cause or increase the likelihood of getting many other cancers and lung
diseases. Even if you stop after several years of smoking you may get smoking related
diseases later on because of the damage that is done.
 Smokers who quit do reduce their chance for getting sick from it later.
 Fact Sheet http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0072.pdf
Take Home Messages:
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Breathing deeply feels good. Not being able to breathe easily feels really bad.
Smoking causes many diseases. People who smoke long enough will get some form of
smoking related disease that will affect their health and breathing and shorten their life.
You can be strong, active and feel well with clean lungs.
You can learn to say no to others who would encourage smoking.
Care of the Materials
 NEVER allow water to touch the pig lungs.
 The carton containing the lungs must be stored at room temperatures - they must not
freeze or get too hot.
 Keep the pig lungs moist using only the solution provided with the activity.
 If allowing students to touch the tumor, instruct them to do it carefully and gently and
with gloves as your school will have to pay for damaged lungs.
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Resources
 Refusal Skills:
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/NIE/focusonmarijuana/Lesson06.pdf
Standards
 CH09-GR.1-S.4-GLE.1
 CH09-GR.2-S.4-GLE.1
 CH09-GR.3-S.4-GLE.1
 CH09-GR.4-S.2-GLE.3
 CH09-GR.5-S.4-GLE.1
 CH09-GR.6-S.4-GLE.1
 CH09-GR.7-S.4-GLE.1
 CH09-GR.8-S.2-GLE.4; CH09-GR.8-S.4-GLE.1
 CH09-GR.HS-S.4-GLE.1, 2, 3
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