Mississippi Science HAP.12.3
The Standard
- HAP.12
- Students will investigate the structures and functions of the respiratory system, including the cause and effect of diseases and disorders.
Identify the five mechanics of gas exchange: pulmonary ventilation, external respiration, transport gases, internal respiration, and cellular respiration.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Respiratory System
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students trace oxygen from the air into the lungs, blood, and body cells. They trace carbon dioxide back out. They explain how cells use oxygen to release energy from glucose.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a diagram of lungs, blood, and body cells, a student can label where each of the five processes happens. They can show oxygen moving toward cells and carbon dioxide moving toward the lungs.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call all five processes breathing or place cellular respiration in the lungs. They may think gas exchange happens only in the lungs, not between blood and body tissues.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Draw oxygen’s path from outside air to a muscle cell and carbon dioxide’s path back out. Label air movement, gas exchange in the lungs and tissues, blood transport, and cellular respiration.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Use paper lung, blood, and muscle cards with oxygen and carbon dioxide counters to model breathing, gas exchange, blood transport, and cell use.
Ask students to write where oxygen enters the blood and how that differs from oxygen use inside a muscle cell.
Match five process cards to airway, alveolus, blood, tissue, and mitochondrion cards, then check the matches with a partner.
Use a runner catching their breath to draw oxygen’s route to a muscle cell and carbon dioxide’s route back to the air.
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Printable HAP.12.3 Worksheet
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