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Need help with Astma project
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wildptchr
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 11:51 am
Need help with Astma project
My daughter is doing her science fair project on astma her question is What happens to the lungs during a asthma attack... My question is Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas or a project she can make.. we have found different projects on how to make a lung but nothing to show the difficulty for those with asthma.. Any help would be apprecaited!
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James
- Former Expert
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 5:19 pm
Asthma symptoms stem from airway constriction due to an immune response. You could devise a model airway (ie trachea, for example) and perform experiments related to asthma. There are ways to simulate the lung; however, depending on what you want to do with asthma, the scale of your experiment may get bigger and more difficult by attempting to simulate whole lung function, rather than a part of the lung.
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PhilipPierce
- Former Expert
- Posts: 59
- Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 6:08 pm
Hi Wildptchr,
It sounds like a good science fair project if you can figure out what you want to test.
If you haven't already, I would start researching asthma and what happens during an asthma attack. I have found google to be very helpful when searching for this.
Asthmatics have inflamed airways all the time, but when something irritates it, the muscles around the airways go into bronchospasm and start squeezing it very tight so that not much air can get through. You could measure this using a spirometer and see how much of the airway has been blocked off.
Are you wanting to see if something effects the lungs during an asthma attack or just wanting to know what happens?
Good luck,
Philip
It sounds like a good science fair project if you can figure out what you want to test.
If you haven't already, I would start researching asthma and what happens during an asthma attack. I have found google to be very helpful when searching for this.
Asthmatics have inflamed airways all the time, but when something irritates it, the muscles around the airways go into bronchospasm and start squeezing it very tight so that not much air can get through. You could measure this using a spirometer and see how much of the airway has been blocked off.
Are you wanting to see if something effects the lungs during an asthma attack or just wanting to know what happens?
Good luck,
Philip
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carolinethorn
- Former Expert
- Posts: 393
- Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:40 pm
Hi,
How much do you and your daughter know about how lungs work normally?
It can be very useful to know what is supposed to happen so its easier to understand what can go wrong during an asthma attack.
There are several websites that have instructions about how to build a model of the lungs using a bottle and plastic bags.
example
http://www.smm.org/heart/lessons/lesson7.htm
Most of them talk about how smoking can effect breathing but you could adapt the model to be about asthma.
good luck and post back as you both develop your ideas,
-caroline
How much do you and your daughter know about how lungs work normally?
It can be very useful to know what is supposed to happen so its easier to understand what can go wrong during an asthma attack.
There are several websites that have instructions about how to build a model of the lungs using a bottle and plastic bags.
example
http://www.smm.org/heart/lessons/lesson7.htm
Most of them talk about how smoking can effect breathing but you could adapt the model to be about asthma.
good luck and post back as you both develop your ideas,
-caroline