Mississippi Science HAP.12.6
The Standard
- HAP.12
- Students will investigate the structures and functions of the respiratory system, including the cause and effect of diseases and disorders.
Research and discuss new environmental causes of respiratory distress (e.g., e-cigarettes, environmental pollutants, and changes in inhaled gas composition).
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 research vaping aerosol, air pollutants, and harmful changes in inhaled gases. They discuss how each exposure can affect the airways or oxygen delivery, using evidence from reliable sources.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain why wildfire smoke can irritate airways while carbon monoxide from a generator reduces oxygen delivery. They cite a source for each claim and do not treat the two exposures as the same.
Common Misconceptions
- Some students think e-cigarette aerosol is just water vapor. Others assume every inhaled hazard harms the lungs in the same way, missing that carbon monoxide affects oxygen transport in the blood.
How to Assess It
- Give students an EPA wildfire smoke fact sheet and a CDC carbon monoxide fact sheet. Ask: “How can each exposure cause harm? Use one fact from each sheet.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Use two straws of different widths to inflate identical balloons, then compare the effort and link the narrower straw to swollen airways.
Read an EPA smoke fact sheet and a CDC carbon monoxide fact sheet, then discuss why the two exposures cause different problems.
Give pairs three claims about vaping, wildfire smoke, and carbon monoxide to check against CDC and EPA fact sheets.
Check the local particle pollution reading on AirNow, then write one action a student with asthma could take if it is high.
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Printable HAP.12.6 Worksheet
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