|  | Cancer | Lung Cancer

Science Projects on the Effects of Cigarette Smoke

The dangers of smoking are well-documented, and children are constantly told to avoid smoking because of them. Science projects can be an innovative way of sharing this information with grade school students. These projects use students' creativity in a hands-on learning endeavor that can effectively demonstrate the hazards of smoking. Whether the projects are individual or group, for science fairs or the lab, science projects cigarette smoking's effects can help children avoid the habit.

  1. Does Smoking Affect Your Lungs?

    • Use two jars, one sponge, one clear tube and one cigarette to construct a siphon smoking machine. Place the sponge in one jar, and make a small hole for the cigarette in the other jar lid. As you let the cigarette burn, smoke fills up the jar and travels through the tubing to the other jar, causing it to fill with smoke as well. After the cigarette burns out, extract the sponge. The sponge will be blackened and dirty, giving a vivid example to students how hazardous smoking is for your lungs.

    Smoke and Mold

    • Create two transparent smoking chambers from lidded jars. Cut a hole in one of the lids. Make sure the hole only accommodates the end piece of an air mattress pump. Afterwards, pump fresh air into that chamber, and place a cigarette in the other chamber. Place one or two slices of bread in each chamber, and document the rate of mold growth in the chambers over time. The mold will grow slower in the smoke-filled chamber, demonstrating that cigarette smoke not only affects the children's growth, but the growth of other organisms as well.

    Lima Bean

    • Use nine lima beans and three paper cups for this project. Place three lima beans in a cup of water, a cup of milk and a cup of tobacco water; mix the contents of a cigarette with water to make tobacco water. Observe the growth of the three lima beans over a two-week period. The tobacco water lima beans should develop slower than the milk and clean water lima beans.

    You Smell Like an Ashtray

    • Use fellow teachers or parents for this experiment. Expose several of the adults' clothes to cigarette smoke for an hour or so. Have the adults wear a number (1 to 5), and come into the classroom one at a time. The children come up to smell each adult. They go back to their seats and write down the adults number and "S" for smoker and "NS" for non-smoker. You could use real-life smokers for this experiment, but this could damage the message if some teachers or parents are actually smokers.

Lung Cancer - Related Articles