We had an interdisciplinary masterclass last week where we were discussed the functioning of our respiratory system from a different perspective – a living machine! Must mention though – it was ALL hands-on, no diagrams, no labelling, no definitions, rather a working model made by the kids that will embed the entire organ system permanently in their leaning process  ?

We discussed about the organs that we can live without completely and the organs that we can live with just one out of the two in our bodies. Kidney is the most well-known among these. Even the 4th graders knew about it! But what about the lungs that is essential to our respiratory system?

It was a really interesting question because at first thought, we would imagine that we can’t do away with the lungs at all – after all, they are one of the most important organs of our respiratory system. But, as it turns out, we can indeed survive and even lead an almost normal life with just 1 lung! In fact, the surviving lung even grows a bit in size to take up the space of the lost lung and improve its oxygen capacity.

It is amazing how quickly kids start absorbing new knowledge and then start relating them to known facts