0Question:
Which best describes what happens during breathing?
a - air is sucked into the lungs, causing the lungs to expand
b - contraction of intercostal muscles and diaphragm causes lungs to expand
c - lung muscles contract when breathing in and relax when breathing out
Answer:
B
Answers would give me information on who has got the idea that lungs expand because the other muscles cause the chest cavity to expand. The lung movement is entirely passive and lungs contain no muscles. Air moves into lungs because the lungs have already expanded.
Correct answer: move students on to past exam questions – extension work about the effect of exercise on breathing
Incorrect answer: review the process again, either using an animation or a bell-jar model of how breathing works – use this as an opportunity to point out the popular misconceptions they might have picked up; try an event ordering activity for describing the process; try and re-assess using a simpler exam question at the end