Name: Izabella Salim Grade: 8 Science Teacher: Mrs.

Sonja De Beer Assessment: Designing a Lab

How does smoker vs a non-smoker compare for lung capacity? 1. Hypothesis

I predict that a non-smokers lung capacity will be much higher than a smokers lung capacity. That is because the walls from the alveoli of the smokers lungs, have grown together, reducing that persons lung surface-area. That happened as one of the main constituents of cigarettes is tar. Tar can eventually end up in the smokers' lungs, which then leads to blockages. The surface area of the lungs is then greatly diminished, resulting in a decreased lung capacity for gas exchange to take place. As the lungs surface-area of the non-smoker is larger than the one from the smoker, their lung capacity will be higher.

2. Dependent variable: The lungs capacity 3. Independent variable: The smokers and the non-smokers

4. Controls: Amount of water, amount of times the experiment is repeated, amount of breathes inhaled, etc

5. Materials:
20 smokers o 10 Females o 20 Males 20 non-smokers o 10 Females o 10 Males Measuring jug or cylinder 5 liter plastic bottle Deep bowl make sure its clean! Water Masking tape Flexible plastic tubing Marker pen

6. Step-by-step procedure
1. Attach a strip of masking tape to the plastic bottle, from bottom to top. 2. Fill the measuring jug with 50ml of water and pour the water into the bottle. Mark the water level on the tape. 3. Repeat until you've marked right up to the top of the bottle - the bottle should be full. 4. 5. Fill the bowl with around 10cm deep of water. Completely cover the mouth of the bottle with your hand, so no water can escape.

6.

Turn the plastic bottle up side down and place it into the bowl of water.

7. Don't remove your hand until ALL of the mouth of the bottle is completely underwater. 8. 9. Insert one end of the plastic tubing into the water bottle. Hold onto the other end. Take a deep breath in. Exhale into the plastic tubing.

10. Measure how much air is now in the bottle. Count up the number of lines where there is air, not water. Multiply the number of lines by 50 ml. 11. Repeat this 3 times for each person 12. Then find the average number which is your lung capacity

7. Results
Comparing Non-Smoker's Lung Capacity
4.15 Lung Capacity (liters) 4.1 4.05 4 3.95 3.9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Person Number Female Male

Comparing Smoker's Lung Capacity

3.5 Person Number 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Lung Capacity (litrers) Female Male

8. Conclusion:

My hypothesis was right. A non-smokers lung capacity is much higher then a smokers lung capacity. The maximum lung capacity from the 20 smokers which did the test was 3.3, and the lowest was 1.8. While, the maximum lung capacity from the non-smokers was 4.5 and the lowest was 4. As you can see, the smokers lung capacity has decreased as its surface-area got smaller, therefore making it harder from the person to breathe and get oxygen into their bodies, as well as making the person vulnerable for lung and heart diseases (as the cigarette chemicals have destroyed the cilia, which is responsible for keeping the dirt away from the lungs). If these smokers quit now, they still have a change to undo some damages (for example the cilia can grow back and they can maybe even try to increase their lungs surface-area), however, some of the damages are permanent, and can never be reversed.