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Body Lab 3-5 / Week 05 / Thursday
4/6
Week 05 · Lungs and Breathing

Thursday

Voice box and the flap
// Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out
⏱ about 15 min

Thursday: Voice Box and the Flap

Rocket hums his favorite tune. "Mmmmm." Raven rests her fingertips gently on the front of her neck and hums too.

"What do you notice?" she asks. "It tickles. Something is shaking!"

Rocket tries it. "Buzz! What is buzzing in there?"

Nova hovers close. "Air from your lungs is passing something," she says. "Think about what makes a guitar string sound."

Your voice box

Your voice box sits at the top of your windpipe. Its science name is larynx (LAIR-inks).

Inside it are two vocal cords.

When air from your lungs passes the vocal cords, they vibrate.

Vibrate means shake back and forth very fast. That makes the sound of your voice.

So your lungs help you breathe, talk and sing!

Safety first
Touch your neck very gently with your fingertips only.
Never press on your neck or anyone else's neck.
Hum softly. No shouting needed.
Try it
Rest your fingertips softly on the front of your neck.
Hum a low note. Then hum a high note.
Now whisper a word. Do you feel less buzzing?
VOICE CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
What do your vocal cords do to make sound?
What moves past the vocal cords to make them vibrate?

The flap that guards your windpipe

Your throat carries both air and food. Then the path splits in two.

One tube is for food. It goes to your stomach.

The other tube is for air. It goes to your lungs.

A small flap called the epiglottis (eh-pih-GLAH-tus) covers the air tube when you swallow.

That keeps food and drinks out of your lungs.

StatementTrue or false?
The voice box sits at the top of the windpipe.?
The epiglottis covers the air tube when you swallow.?
Food is supposed to go down to the lungs.?
Your throat carries both air and food.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEThe epiglottis is a flap that keeps food out of the air tube.

Breathing without thinking

Most of the time, you breathe without thinking about it.

Your brain controls how fast you breathe.

Sometimes you can change your breathing on purpose, like when you sing.

The science name for the voice box is ____.
The flap that covers the air tube is the ____.
Your ____ controls how fast you breathe.
When you swallow, which tube gets covered: the air tube or the food tube?
WHY THIS EXERCISEThe epiglottis covers the air tube so food goes to the stomach instead.
FROM BREATH TO VOICE
  • ?Your diaphragm relaxes and moves up.
  • ?Air flows out of your lungs.
  • ?Air moves up the windpipe.
  • ?Air passes the vocal cords in your voice box.
  • ?The vocal cords vibrate and make a sound.
WHY THIS EXERCISEBreathing out pushes air past your vocal cords, and they vibrate to make your voice.

Wonderful humming and thinking! Tomorrow we test how moving changes breathing.

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